nodejs plugin: build fails if there are missing peer dependencies.
Metadata
Current evaluation
Snapcraft nodejs plugin build fails when npm ls --json exits non-zero on missing peer deps; the CalledProcessError fallback is dead code since run_output wraps it in SnapcraftPluginCommandError. Open 7.5 years, unlabelled, no maintainer activity.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The issue has no labels, zero comments, and no maintainer response in 7.5 years, showing no sign of ever being triaged or categorised. It is a well-diagnosed real bug (the reporter correctly identifies that run_output converts CalledProcessError into SnapcraftPluginCommandError, making the existing try/except fallback dead code), so it should not be closed as stale without first confirming whether the code path still exists in the current nodejs plugin. I could not verify the current code state (no pinned SHA available for the snapcraft repo), which limits confidence.
Impact:
45
Quick Win:
31.5
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
65
Support Request:
0
Issue body
This happens when trying to run `npm ls --json` at the build stage.
If there are any missing peer dependencies, the command exits with a non-zero exit code.
However, most of the time those errors can be safely ignored.
An attempt to mitigate this is already in place:
```
def _get_installed_node_packages(self, cwd):
# There is no yarn ls
cmd = [os.path.join(self._npm_dir, "bin", "npm"), "ls", "--json"]
try:
output = self.run_output(cmd, cwd)
except subprocess.CalledProcessError as error:
# XXX When dependencies have missing dependencies, an error like
# this is printed to stderr:
# npm ERR! peer dep missing: glob@*, required by glob-promise@3.1.0
# retcode is not 0, which raises an exception.
output = error.output.decode(sys.getfilesystemencoding()).strip()
```
However, `run_output()` itself captures the `CalledProcessError`, rasing a different type of exception (SnapcraftPluginCommandError):
```
def run_output(self, cmd, cwd=None, **kwargs):
if not cwd:
cwd = self.builddir
os.makedirs(cwd, exist_ok=True)
try:
return common.run_output(cmd, cwd=cwd, **kwargs)
except CalledProcessError as process_error:
raise errors.SnapcraftPluginCommandError(
command=cmd, part_name=self.name, exit_code=process_error.returncode
) from process_error
```
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
45
Quick Win:
31.5
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
65
Support Request:
0
|
needs triage | Snapcraft nodejs plugin build fails when npm ls --json exits non-zero on missing peer deps; the CalledProcessError fallback is dead code since run_output wraps it in SnapcraftPluginCommandError. Open 7.5 years, unlabelled, no maintainer activity. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Nodejs plugin build fails when npm ls --json encounters missing peer dependencies. The run_output wrapper catches and re-raises the exception, bypassing the intended fallback logic. The issue is over 7 years old with no maintainer engagement. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
100
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Nodejs plugin build fails due to missing peer dependencies causing npm ls to exit non-zero. Issue is 7+ years old with no activity or maintainer response. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
5
|
needs triage | Nodejs plugin build fails during npm ls due to missing peer dependencies triggering an unhandled exception. Issue remains untriaged and inactive for over seven years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
70
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Node.js plugin build fails on missing peer dependencies due to incorrect exception handling in npm ls output capture. The report is over 7 years old with zero maintainer interaction or labels. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1886858 nodejs plugin doesn't set npm path for custom node version | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Bug: snapcraft's nodejs plugin downloads a custom nodejs-version but still runs build commands with the default node, leaving npm out of PATH. Reporter supplied a PATH workaround. 6 years old, no labels, zero comments, no maintainer response; nodejs plugin since deprecated/removed. | |
| #2424 nodejs plugin: fail gracefully when a package.json is missing | snapcraft | merged | Merged into master. The nodejs plugin now fails gracefully when package.json is missing, resolving LP #1807971 and SNAPCRAFT-9X. The change adds 40 lines and removes 8 across two files, achieving 100% diff coverage. | |
| #1731003 node app builds forked, but not referencing upstream source | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft 2.34 node plugin fails to build when source is a remote URL (rimraf not found, node_modules missing) while a local checkout builds fine. 8.8 years old, zero maintainer interaction; the 2.x node plugin has since been rewritten in snapcraft 8.x. | |
| #1871273 Can't Buidl on WSL2 any Longer | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft build fails on WSL2 with KeyError 'dependencies' in the nodejs plugin's _get_installed_node_packages while parsing yarn output. 6+ years old, zero comments, no maintainer response; old plugin architecture since replaced. | |
| #1660614 snapcraft's nodejs plugin does not refresh the global, user cache before installing dependencies | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Legacy snapcraft nodejs plugin used npm --cache-min=Infinity, so a stale npm cache could cause ETARGET build failures when a dependency version was newly published. No maintainer response in ~9.5 years; the legacy plugin no longer exists in current snapcraft. |