--- title: "We shouldn’t have needed lockfiles" url: https://daily.dev/posts/we-shouldn-t-have-needed-lockfiles-imystudfs source_url: https://tonsky.me/blog/lockfiles/ type: article source: "tonsky.me" published: 2025-08-06T16:34:21.372Z updated: 2025-09-06T02:33:05.800Z tags: ["build-systems", "maven"] reading_time: 4 upvotes: 2 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # We shouldn’t have needed lockfiles **[tonsky.me](https://daily.dev/sources/tonsky)** · 4 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Lockfiles are unnecessary complications in dependency management. The author argues that proper dependency management should use exact version specifications rather than version ranges, making builds deterministic without requiring lockfiles. Maven's 20-year success without lockfiles demonstrates this approach works at scale. Version ranges create non-reproducible builds by allowing dependencies to change based on build time rather than publication time, defeating the purpose of having lockfiles in the first place. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#build-systems](https://daily.dev/tags/build-systems), [#maven](https://daily.dev/tags/maven) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/we-shouldn-t-have-needed-lockfiles-imystudfs)