Skip AIX when using yarn

[BridgeAR]

It seems like yarn uses fs.futimes() during install and that does not work on AIX versions before 7.1. What about skipping AIX by default if yarn is used?

[richardlau]

This is a kind of unfortunate hole we've dug ourselves into as back since Node.js 8 the minimum supported version of AIX is 7.1 but we've never had that level of AIX in the CI. Getting AIX 7.1 into the CI is waiting on more hardware so in the meantime skipping seems like the most practical solution.

I guess the only question is whether to bury such a skip in code or make it more explicit in lookup.json (currently we don't have too many modules that use yarn)?

[BridgeAR]

@richardlau it seems like there is a new machine available and the mentioned issue got closed a while ago as resolved. @gdams do you know anything about the status for AIX 7.1?

It is probably OK to skip AIX explicitly for all yarn modules but people have to remember that each time an entry is added or changed. I personally would also like to automate the yarn / non detection instead of having an explicit field. That could be done by checking if the module has a yarn.lock file or not. If it does, yarn will be used. There might of course also be modules that require yarn without such file and we could also parse the script entries from the package.json. If a script starts with yarn it's pretty safe to install it with yarn. We could still keep the field but make it optional. That way we probably do not have to worry about it anymore. Question is if it's important enough to invest the time to implement it.

[sam-github]

We are still trying to get the new hardware deployed, its bogged down in internal process problems. So, no AIX 7.1 yet.

[mhdawson]

+1 to skipping AIX if a module uses yarn until we can get some 7.1 machines in place.