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[BUG] prepack is not called on installation of git packages #257
Description
Is there an existing issue for this?
- I have searched the existing issues
Current Behavior
The npm CLI documentation says that prepack "Runs BEFORE a tarball is packed (on "npm pack", "npm publish", and when installing a git dependencies)," yet in dir.js L39-L41, it's made clear that pacote expects the CLI to call it, rather than pacote itself.
Expected Behavior
Unless I am misunderstanding the control flow here, npm calls pacote before ever having access to the git repo's files, and doesn't receive control flow back until after the tarball has already been generated (and installed?). If that's the case, the calling of prepack when downloading a git repository needs to be done by pacote, rather than expecting the CLI to call it.
Notes:
- There is a corresponding issue in npm/cli([BUG]
prepareandprepackscripts are not handled as documented when installing a git dependency cli#1865) which tracks this issue, but has been closed due to repairation of half of the issue (dependency installation before prepare script).
Steps To Reproduce
See this comment in npm/cli for a simple reproduction process.
Environment
- npm: 9.3.1, also tested on 9.4.1
- Node: v18.14.0, also tested on v19.6.0
- OS: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
- platform: HP Laptop 15-dy2xxx
Activity
jakebailey commentedon Mar 30, 2023
We were actually considering adding a prepack script to TypeScript so that people could install via git for bisect purposes, but found out that it doesn't actually work in npm v7+. prepack has better semantics (doesn't run on a plain dep install in the repo) and works cross-package-manager, but not having this is really a bummer and we've ended up not actually adding it.
wesbiggs commentedon Nov 4, 2023
Also/still a problem on npm 10.2.0.
A very silly workaround:
In the consuming package (i.e. the one that has the git dependency):
Since the
preparescript does run afterinstall, this forces the desired behavior when the consuming package is installed. (The first time you add the package topackage.json, though, you need to run it manually.) YMMV.n.b. I don't know if 9.0.0 is the right version to start with, just guessing from the issue description.
jakebailey commentedon Nov 4, 2023
If you hadn't seen it, there's also: https://github.com/cspotcode/workaround-broken-npm-prepack-behavior
Which is what
ts-nodeuses to work around this problem.fix(scripts): make it so prepack runs properly
fix(scripts): make it so prepack runs properly
fix(scripts): make it so prepack runs properly