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> > tools that change their behavior based on files in one of the parent directories > You mean like git? In case of interactive tools like git it is somethin

by jwr 10y ago

> > tools that change their behavior based on files in one of the parent directories > You mean like git? In case of interactive tools like git it is something you would expect. But it came to me as a rather huge surprise that if you type "npm install" in a directory where you just unpacked sources, what will actually happen depends on what exists in the PARENT directory. Not to mention writing to the parent directory. I am not alone in being caught off-guard by this: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/2896 https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/2896 I'd say this is unacceptable in case of tools that are "make-like".

qaq 10y ago
what's make like about a package manager?
- IncRnd 10y ago
  Do you really think that npm doesn't build software using dependency management?
  - qaq 10y ago
    It sure does "build software" but it's primary function is package management. We could call Emacs an email client by the same token. An equivalent of make in js world are Gulp, Grunt etc.
hugozap 10y ago
It's an npm convention according to the dependency resolution algorithm, not a flaw. If you have a .git folder in the parent directory you also get different/possibly unexpected behavior. It's not unacceptable if you have read how it works. Both cases are documented.
rhinoceraptor 10y ago
That seems pretty normal, if I'm in a subdirectory of my project and install a dependency, it makes sense that it would install it in the root of my project where the node_modules/ folder is. When I use git in a subdirectory of my project, it looks for .git/ up the directory tree until it finds it.