This document explains how to install specific versions of Grunt and Grunt plugins. If you haven't read the [[Getting Started]] guide, you should check that out first.
Grunt and Grunt plugins should be defined as devDependencies in your project's package.json. This will allow you to install all of your project's dependencies with a single command: npm install. The current stable and development versions of Grunt are always listed on the wiki's home page.
If you need a specific version of Grunt or a Grunt plugin, run npm install grunt@VERSION --save-dev where VERSION is the version you need. This will install the specified version, adding it to your package.json devDependencies.
Note that a tilde version range will be used in your package.json when you add the --save-dev flag to npm install. This is typically good, as new patch releases of the specified version will automatically be upgraded as development continues, per semver.
Periodically, as new functionality is being developed, Grunt builds may be published to npm. These builds will never be installable without explicitly specifying a version number, and will typically have a build number or alpha/beta/release candidate designation.
Like installing a specific version of grunt, run npm install grunt@VERSION --save-dev where VERSION is the version you need, and npm will install that version of Grunt in your project folder, adding it to your package.json devDependencies.
Note that regardless of the version you specify, a tilde version range will be specified in package.json. This is very bad, as new, possibly incompatible, patch releases of the specified development version may be installed by npm, breaking your build.
In this case it is very important that you manually edit your package.json and remove the ~ (tilde) from the version number. This will lock in the exact development version that you have specified.
The same process may be used to install a published development version of a Grunt plugin.
If you want to install a bleeding-edge, unpublished version of Grunt or Grunt plugin, follow the instructions for specifying a git URL as a dependency and be sure to specify an actual commit SHA (not a branch name) as the commit-ish. This will guarantee that your project always uses that exact version of grunt.
The specified git URL may be that of the official Grunt repo or a fork.