Nightly builds don't work with npm packages that specify minimum node version

[kornelski]

npm i vinyl-fs@0.3.13
npm ERR! Darwin 14.4.0
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/bin/iojs" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "i" "vinyl-fs@0.3.13"
npm ERR! node v2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea
npm ERR! npm v2.12.1
npm ERR! code ENOTSUP

npm ERR! notsup Unsupported
npm ERR! notsup Not compatible with your version of node/npm: vinyl-fs@0.3.13
npm ERR! notsup Required: {"node":">= 0.10"}
npm ERR! notsup Actual: {"npm":"2.12.1","node":"2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea"}

I guess this is because npm doesn't understand versions such as "2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea". The problem does not occur in iojs release version.

[Fishrock123]

cc @isaacs any idea what's up here since you maintain node-semver (which I presume this is coming from)?

[silverwind]

">= 0.10" looks like an invalid semver range, there should be no space. Thought not sure if this is the cause for your issue.

[evanlucas]

Could be related to https://github.com/npm/node-semver#prerelease-tags.

> semver.satisfies('v2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea', '>=0.10')
false
> semver.satisfies('v2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea', '>=1')
false
> semver.satisfies('v2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea', '>=2')
false
> semver.satisfies('v2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea', '>=3')
false
> semver.satisfies('v2.3.5-nightly20150715f95f9ef6ea', '>=4')
false

[targos]

@pornel Have you enabled the engine-strict option in your npm config ? AFAIK without it you should just get a warning.

[silverwind]

Was able to reproduce it, and can confirm that the change from ">= 0.10" to ">=0.10" fixes the issue. It's likely a bug in either npm oder node-semver, or working as intended if the space is not considered valid, but there is at least one occurence in package.json docs where the space is used, so I'm unsure.

[silverwind]

Or rather, scrap that. I was testing the latest release. vinyl-fs@0.3.13 still has an engineStrict in package.json, which will fail unfortunately. @pornel until npm@3 resolves this through removal of engineStrict, you could use this hack from npm/npm#7171:

npm config set node-version 2.3.5

[isaacs]

Working as designed.

"Pre-release" versions are assumed invalid for meeting ranges unless you specify a prerelease version of the same (major,minor,patch) tuple in the range itself.

This is to prevent users from surprisingly receiving a broken thing without opting into perhaps getting not-fully-baked stuff.

engineStrict in package.json will no longer be an error in npm@3 as @silverwind points out, because that has always been a bit obnoxious and confusing.

Manually setting the node-version in the npm config is totally fine, but make sure to npm config unset node-version later, or you may have some weird behavior!

[rvagg]

engineStrict in package.json will no longer be an error in npm@3 as

WOOHOO!

That's all.

[Fishrock123]

This is to prevent users from surprisingly receiving a broken thing without opting into perhaps getting not-fully-baked stuff.

Sure when installing things, but it's a little different for node core which the user would have had to explicitly install, isn't it?

At least it won't error anymore, but doesn't it still log lots of warnings? Seems great for the rest of npm but maybe not so much for "engines".

[silverwind]

Yeah, those warnings are annoying, you usually get a few screens full of them on packages with big dependency trees.

[rvagg]

Note also that we're going to be seeing more use of nightlies and RCs as we enable proper node-gyp support for them, that's been one of the biggest hassles.

As long as the errors are gone I'm fine with the errors for now but would expect over time that this is annoying for enough people that it needs to change. I don't believe the current behaviour of semver ranges wrt prerelease tags makes sense when applied Node versions but am happy to let that discussion play out over the long run.