[BUG] When installing a git dependency, prepare script not running

[OmgImAlexis]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

Package is installed and no dist directory is created.

Expected Behavior

• Package is installed, prepare script is run and dist directory is created.

Steps To Reproduce

This should show dist missing in the ls even though it has a prepare script.

• mkdir x && cd x && npm init -y
• npm i github:omgimalexis/interval-to-human
• ls node_modules/interval-to-human/

If you then run cd node_modules/interval-to-human/ && npm i && npm run prepare && cd ../../ you'll see the dist directory now exists.

Environment

• OS: Windows/macOS/linux
• Node: v14.15.3
• npm: 6.14.5 - 7.24.1

[OmgImAlexis]

Related issues:

#321
#459
#1229
#1287
#1390

[Raynos]

Ran into this today.

[gms-ta-koge]

It might be related to #2890

[OmgImAlexis]

@gms-ta-koge doubt it since it also happens in 6 and they state they can downgrade to fix it.

[OmgImAlexis]

So...

v14 - the prepare isn't called.
v15 - the dev deps aren't installed.
v16 - the dev deps aren't installed.
v17 - fails with path null/package.json

[OmgImAlexis]

Does any version of node have a copy of npm that works with git and global packages?

[ruyadorno]

Thank you for the report @OmgImAlexis, after debugging the reproduction steps provided I noticed that the error you're finding is due to the fact that your dist/ folder is in fact ignored via .gitignore file.

In order to be able to properly prepare a git repo npm will run the extracted files through npm-packlist in order to get the expected files that are going to be placed in your node_modules folder.

To fix it either add a .npmignore file that ignores all the files that you don't want to end up in your tarball (but make sure to not add dist to the list) OR instead use the package.json files property to define all files that should be included (including dist).

Thanks again and hope this helps 😊

[OmgImAlexis]

Time to add a warning to all my repos that're missing the files field. This fixed the issue.

[ljharb]

Or .npmignore; omission from “files” means your consumers break; omission from npmignore means an extra thing gets published.