write a .packages when globally installing a package

[DartBot]

<img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/5479?v=3" align="left" width="96" height="96"hspace="10"> Issue by sethladd
Originally opened as dart-lang/sdk#23453

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In order to properly find dependencies, and thus their resources, please write a .packages file during pub global activate, for the command, so that when the command starts, the runtime (VM) is able to use the .packages file to file package: URIs at runtime.

(perhaps put the .packages file next to the snapshot?)

Thanks!

[DartBot]

<img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/188?v=3" align="left" width="48" height="48"hspace="10"> Comment by nex3

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Maybe this was the intent of the issue, but to be clear: I want to wait on this until the resource-loading story has a concrete implementation in the VM. It doesn't make sense to implement pub support for something that doesn't exist yet and whose conventions may still change.

[sethladd]

Hi!

Can we ask that a .packages file is also written when a user installs a package via pub global activate in time for the 1.12 release? This will help us use the Resource API in apps that are installed via pub global activate.

Thanks!

[nex3]

Hi!

Can we ask that a .packages file is also written when a user installs a package via pub global activate ? This will help us use the Resource API in apps that are installed via pub global activate.

Thanks!

Isn't this the original request?

[sethladd]

Isn't this the original request?

Indeed! Apologies, I should have added "by 1.12". I have updated the previous comment.

[nex3]

Whether this happens by 1.12 depends when the resource API lands in the VM. I still don't want to implement this without being able to actually run it against real code to be sure it works, but I'll start in on it as soon as that's possible.

Feel free to add this as a sub-issue on dart-lang/sdk#23823.

[sethladd]

OK, thanks! I added to the checklist for dart-lang/sdk#23823

[nex3]

It probably goes without saying, but to be explicit: this is also blocked on dart-lang/sdk#23369.

[sethladd]

This just in: the VM landed .packages in this PR: dart-lang/sdk@b07a9dd

[sethladd]

This also just in: VM landed Resource in this commit: dart-lang/sdk@f63db49

[nex3]

This was fixed in 198d59a.

[sethladd]

Thanks for the update.

I just installed 1.12-5.3 and a .packages file wasn't written out next to the snapshot and the shell script doesn't include a --packages reference. Do I need to pass a flag to pub global activate?

[nex3]

This isn't yet pulled into the Dart SDK. You can always tell what the latest SDK version of pub is by looking here; if you plug that commit in to GitHub's compare view, you can see which commits haven't been pulled in yet.

[mit-mit]

Do we need a MergeToDev request to get this into the next 1.12 dev build, or will it get there in some other way (sorry for asking newbie questions)?

[nex3]

Once this gets pulled into the SDK's DEPS file, I'll file a MergeToStable request for 1.12.

[mit-mit]

Merge request is dart-lang/sdk#24094