cordova-fetch cannot install plugins from git repos with npm 3 if project has unmet peer dependencies about cordova-fetch

[raphinesse]

@NateEag Actually we will be dropping support for npm@<5 in the next major. The code you referenced has already been removed in #80.

@misterti No, unfortunately there's no built-in way of getting even more verbose output. You could patch the version of cordova-fetch used by your cordova installation to log npmInstallOutput here:

cordova-fetch/index.js

Lines 93 to 94 in d2be930

	function getTargetPackageSpecFromNpmInstallOutput (npmInstallOutput) {
	const lines = npmInstallOutput.split('\n');

Or maybe you could just try installing what you are trying to install using npm install then you should be seeing any unmet dependency warnings.

[breautek]

or at least how can i see the underlying error

Attaching --verbose flag to any cordova command should spit out a lot of potentially useful debug information, including information from stdout of spawned processes.

Also a side note that support for NPM 3 is ending in the next major, which is already committed to master. So if there are any issues regarding NPM 3, it will likely be no longer addressed. You should consider upgrading if possible.

[misterti]

Do we have a workaround, or at least how can i see the underlying error, what is the unmet dependency?
Thanks

[NateEag]

In my project I actually wound up removing the plugin that caused the error for unrelated reasons.

@breautek Thanks for the heads-up about npm 3. If you look at the code in question, you'll see a comment claiming that it also applies with npm 4.

As I said above, I haven't tested that, but it seems likely to me this bug will exist there too.

[misterti]

Verbose still doesn't give any usable information. I get module_not_found from async.js and then unmet\package.json at the end. Can i get even more verbose output from each step of cordova plugin add?

[NateEag]

@raphinesse Gotcha, thanks. Good to know.

[misterti]

@raphinesse thanks, that worked perfectly. I dumped the npmInstallOutput and got all the info i needed. Doing npm install did not fail. I think a step after failed.

console.log(dump(npmInstallOutput));
where dump() is a copy from http://www.openjs.com/scripts/others/dump_function_php_print_r.php

Edit: npm install actually returns a warning for unmet peer dependencies and that breaks further steps of cordova plugin add, when it should return the module name. So i patched getTargetPackageSpecFromNpmInstallOutput and i want to share this for other poor souls suffering from this.

function getTargetPackageSpecFromNpmInstallOutput (npmInstallOutput) {
    //console.log("dump(npmInstallOutput));
    const lines = npmInstallOutput.split('\n');
    for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
	if (lines[i].indexOf('UNMET') > -1)
		continue;
        if (lines[i].startsWith('+ ')) {
            // npm >= 5
            return lines[i].slice(2);
        } else if (lines[i].startsWith('└─') || lines[i].startsWith('`-') || lines[i].startsWith('+-')) {
            // 3 <= npm <= 4
            return lines[i].slice(4).split(' ')[0];
        }
    }
    throw new CordovaError('Could not determine package name from output:\n' + npmInstallOutput);
}

Sorry for code formatting, it just won't work
Edit: fixed, thanks breautek

[breautek]

Sorry for code formatting, it just won't work

For future reference, you can do block-level formatting by using 3 backticks ( ``` ) followed by a new line, using another 3 backticks on a new line to end the block.

[erisu]

I am closing out this ticket as we do not support npm 3.