Install new version of child dependency without changing parent dependency in node - node.js

Question

I have a node project my-app that depends on my-other-lib and my-test-lib, my-other-lib also has a dependency on my-test-lib.
This structure in node_modules looks like this:
my-app
├── my-other-lib#1.0.0
└── my-test-lib#1.0.0 (dev dependency)
└── my-other-lib#1.0.0
my-app uses my-other-lib to do some stuff on the production app, my-test-lib is a framework of sorts to help with testing. my-test-lib also makes use of my-other-lib.
I'm writing a test in my-app I want to add a bit of functionality to my-other-lib to help me in that test. I don't need to change any code in my-test-lib to get this working, however I can't figure out how to get this dependency to update without bumping the dependency version in my-test-lib and releasing a new version of it. It feels like I shouldn't have to do that.
If I release my-other-lib#1.1.0, then in my-app run npm install my-other-lib#1.1.0, I end up with this node_modules structure:
my-app
├── my-other-lib#1.1.0
└── my-test-lib#1.0.0 (dev dependency)
└── my-other-lib#1.0.0
One thing that seems odd to me is that my-test-lib specifies the dependency as my-other-lib: "^1.0.0" which implies that it should be fine with using 1.1.0, but still both packages are installed in node_modules.
Is there a way to have my-test-lib use my-other-lib#1.1.0 besides bumping the version in my-test-lib and releasing my-test-lib#1.1.0? And if not, what is the point of specifying the ^ in versions listed in package.json?

Answer 1

my-test-lib is also a npm repository, same as my-app, so you actual structure is the following.
my-app
├── my-other-lib#1.1.0
└── my-test-lib#1.0.0 (dev dependency)
└── my-other-lib#1.0.0
my-test-lib
└── my-other-lib#1.0.0
You need to have control over my-test-lib if you want to upgrade the packages.
let's say your folder structure looks like that:
workspace
├── my-app
└── my-test-lib
The process you should follow is the following (starting from workspace):
// go to your lib
cd my-test-lib
// upgrade my-other-lib
npm upgrade my-other-lib#^1.0.0
//increase your package.json version
// publish your new version
npm publish
// go back to your app
cd ../my-app
// upgrade my-test-lib
npm upgrade my-test-lib#^1.0.0
with this you should end up with the following structure:
my-app
├── my-other-lib#1.0.0
└── my-test-lib#x.x.x (dev dependency) (the new version you published)
└── my-other-lib#1.1.0
Cheers.