Running npm ci doesn't install the node binary

[kohenkatz]

In order to make sure I am using the same dependencies, I usually run npm ci instead of npm install when I am working on my development machine (running Windows 10), unless I am specifically updating dependencies.

It seems that running npm ci does not install the node binaries, leading to errors.

It does create .\node_modules\.bin\node, .\node_modules\.bin\node.cmd, and .\node_modules\.bin\node.ps1 executable wrappers (for Bash, Command Prompt, and Powershell respectively), but those files point to the executable located at .\node_modules\node\bin\node, which is not present.

The two workarounds for this that I have found are:

1. Manually delete the .\node_modules\node\ directory and the node executable wrappers (for all three shells) and run npm install node again.
2. cd .\node_modules\node and run (PowerShell shown here) & 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe' .\installArchSpecificPackage.js

I'm not sure why the preinstall script doesn't seem to work when npm ci is used, but I do think it needs to be fixed.

---

Background:

Here is how I first found this problem:

• npm install vuejs-datatable - this depends on core-js and therefore causes the core-js postinstall script to run. That postinstall script calls node -e ... which npm automatically redirects to call the local copy of node instead of the system copy.
  • Observe that the postinstall script runs without error.
• Manually delete node_modules and run npm install
  • Observe that the postinstall script again runs with no error.
• Run npm ci - this automatically deletes node_modules before it runs and then runs npm install making sure to use the exact package versions specified in package-lock.json.
  • Observe that the postinstall script of core-js now exits with an error The system cannot find the path specified.
  • Observe that this is true for any call to .\node_modules\.bin\node.cmd.
  • The error returned from the PowerShell version is more useful: The term 'C:\path\to\my\app\node_modules\.bin/../node/bin/node' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

[aredridel]

Aye. I expect this is a tough dependency-ordering problem. There's no guarantee in which order postinstall scripts run.

[aredridel]

It's likely to work if the architecture-specific package is depended upon, but then the app loses portability.

[kohenkatz]

The thing I am still trying to figure out is why there is a difference between npm intall and npm ci. I would think that they should both work the same way.

[aredridel]

It may be an installation order problem. ci can take shortcuts that install cannot.