[BUG] npx behavior in CI environments

[BethGriggs]

This isn't really a bug, but raising it to discuss the potential impact of changes to npx in CI environments.

Current Behavior:

npx mocha
Need to install the following packages:
 mocha
Ok to proceed? (y)

npx -y mocha works to get the automatic install behaviour, but that would require users to update their CI scripts.

Also, npx -y mocha errors in npm@6 with:

npx -y mocha
ERROR: You must supply a command.
Execute binaries from npm packages.
  npx [options] <command>[@version] [command-arg]...

I think that would complicate the logic required in CI scripts when running across multiple Node.js/npm versions.

Just using Mocha as an example. In Node.js, we use npx in our GH Actions configuration, which I suspect would be broken when GH Actions updates to use a version of Node.js containing npm@7.

Expected Behavior:

• Unsure, but curious if there could be a workaround that removes the need for users to edit their scripts.

Steps To Reproduce:

• npx <module> in a CI enironment.

Environment:

• All CI environments

/cc @MylesBorins @richardlau

[wesleytodd]

@ruyadorno mentioned in the slack conversation that this was an intentional breaking change, could someone link to the context for that decision?

[ruyadorno]

hi @BethGriggs thanks for letting us know 😄

It's worth mentioning that for non-interactive terminals we are going to patch (ref #1936) npx to only WARN instead of throwing so any combination of Unix pipelines would also avoid the prompt/confirmation:

• npx mocha < /dev/null

[ruyadorno]

as also mentioned in the slack channel: npm_config_yes=true npx mocha is the working npm6-7 compat version of it

[nlf]

we published 7.0.0-rc.4 today that skips the prompt, but prints a warning, when run in a non-interactive environment. that way you're still alerted that something is being installed but we do not break in CI environments.

for interactive environments the above workaround should do the trick.

can you let us know if this resolves your issue @BethGriggs?

[gengjiawen]

we published 7.0.0-rc.4 today that skips the prompt, but prints a warning, when run in a non-interactive environment. that way you're still alerted that something is being installed but we do not break in CI environments.

for interactive environments the above workaround should do the trick.

can you let us know if this resolves your issue @BethGriggs?

root@localhost ~# npm install -g npm@7.0.0-rc.4
npm ERR! code MODULE_NOT_FOUND
npm ERR! Cannot find module 'agentkeepalive'
npm ERR! Require stack:
npm ERR! - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/make-fetch-happen/agent.js
npm ERR! - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/make-fetch-happen/index.js
npm ERR! - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-registry-fetch/index.js
npm ERR! - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/metrics.js
npm ERR! - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/npm.js
npm ERR! - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli.js
npm ERR! - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2020-10-10T03_17_28_890Z-debug.log

[BethGriggs]

can you let us know if this resolves your issue @BethGriggs?

I think the concern has been addressed to reduce the impact in CI environments, thanks!

[nlf]

closing since the original issue is resolved.

@gengjiawen if you're able to reproduce the problem you had updating, please do open another issue and we can discuss it there

[kentcdodds]

FWIW, I bumped into this in TravisCI: https://travis-ci.com/github/kentcdodds/advanced-react-hooks/builds/191260988

I think that @BethGriggs' original concern is still an issue 😬