Not able to include package.json in the patch

[davidlampon]

I was commenting on here as we are (for some unknown reason so far) not able to download the latest beta version which seem to fix the issue about the error after applying a patch.

@ds300 let me explain out situation so maybe you can point the way to go. We are having this issue: a third party package we are using has not properly set the folder directories to point to the /lib and /es folders.

We opened this PR for them to merge but even if that happens then the other package we want to use rc-slider. So in total this means waiting on two external PRs.

As a workaround we wanted to modify or local packages, patch them, to allow this changes which already make our build succesful but we are not able to include the package.jsonfile. We tried yarn patch-package rc-util --use-yarn --exclude /$.^/ as a void regexp to reenable the disbales package.json tracking for the patch but with no success.

As another workaround we modified the /es files to patch the package but the patch-package is presenting the whitespace error This is usually caused by inconsistent whitespace in the patch file.

TL,DR: What would be the way to include package.jsonin the patch?

[ds300]

Hi! 👋 Thanks for the thorough explanation :-)

The first thing I noticed is that you're using JS-style regexp literals with the --exclude override. Instead you should use regular strings. See the examples in include-exclude-paths.sh – particularly this one which uses interesting regexp syntax. Imagine you were passing the string to new RegExp(...)

Thanks for bringing this issue to my attention. I'll try to improve that section of the readme.

[dawnmist]

If you can add an example for disabling the default exclude, that'd be fantastic.

The other time that being able to patch package.json is desirable is when adding typescript type definitions to a package that doesn't have its own type definitions, so that you can add the "types" field to the package's package.json file pointing to your new type definition file.

Edit: It doesn't seem to matter what the exclude regex is, package.json is hardcoded to be excluded in the diff inside makePatch at:

patch-package/src/makePatch.ts

Lines 123 to 126 in 10c0a51

	// don't commit package.json though
	fs.unlinkSync(
	path.join(tmpRepo.name, "node_modules", packageName, "package.json"),
	)

and:

patch-package/src/makePatch.ts

Lines 135 to 138 in 10c0a51

	// remove package.json again
	fs.unlinkSync(
	path.join(tmpRepo.name, "node_modules", packageName, "package.json"),
	)

At present, the only way to be able to include package.json in the diff is to first patch patch-package to comment out those two lines in the compiled code. There's a bit of humour there in using patch-package to patch patch-package itself...

Patch: patch-package+5.1.1.patch - to allow enabling patching of package.json if you also use a regex that doesn't include it (e.g. --exclude '\*.txt').

patch-package
--- a/node_modules/patch-package/dist/makePatch.js
+++ b/node_modules/patch-package/dist/makePatch.js
@@ -66,14 +66,14 @@ function makePatch(packageName, appPath, packageManager, includePaths, excludePa
         fs.writeFileSync(path.join(tmpRepo.name, ".gitignore"), "!/node_modules\n\n");
         tmpExec_1("git", ["init"]);
         // don't commit package.json though
-        fs.unlinkSync(path.join(tmpRepo.name, "node_modules", packageName, "package.json"));
+        // fs.unlinkSync(path.join(tmpRepo.name, "node_modules", packageName, "package.json"));
         tmpExec_1("git", ["add", "-f", slash(path.join("node_modules", packageName))]);
         tmpExec_1("git", ["commit", "-m", "init"]);
         // replace package with user's version
         rimraf.sync(tmpRepoPackagePath);
         fsExtra.copySync(packagePath, tmpRepoPackagePath, { recursive: true });
         // remove package.json again
-        fs.unlinkSync(path.join(tmpRepo.name, "node_modules", packageName, "package.json"));
+        // fs.unlinkSync(path.join(tmpRepo.name, "node_modules", packageName, "package.json"));
         // stage all files
         tmpExec_1("git", ["add", "-f", slash(path.join("node_modules", packageName))]);
         // unstage any ignored files so they don't show up in the diff

[ds300]

Oh yes, you're right! Really sorry about the mixup. I think those lines should have been removed when I added the --include and --exclude options.

[ds300]

Just published a fix for this in patch-package@6.0.0-4 – Thanks for pointing this out @dawnmist and @davidlampon 🙇 ❤️

I'll close this once v6 leaves beta.

[brunolemos]

I'm using 6.0.0-7 and I'm not able to patch a package.json from another package, how can I do that?

EDIT: Adding a --exclude '\*.txt' made it work.

I removed a package from a third party package.json but when I run yarn it gets added to yarn.lock anyway :( It makes sense, as it run a postinstall script.

Tried this but did not work: "preinstall": "patch-package --include 'package\\.json$'"

[ds300]

Hi @brunolemos 👋 !

Unfortunately what you want to do is not possible 😢 This is a common question about patch-package. I don't know of a way to get absolute control over which transient dependencies get installed. The best thing I've found is manually editing your own lock file, but that's only useful for making sure a specific version gets installed.

[ivikash]

I am trying to patch a dependency of a dependency in the package.json. It does generate the patch file with a little noise (using npm) but is unable to apply the patches -> **ERROR** Failed to apply patch for package somePackage. Can you include a short summary or documentation on the usage, like how to generate the patch file and especially what should be done in prepare step. I am currently using 6.0.0-v5 due to some constraints.

[ivikash]

@ds300 Any update on this? Also, as I am using npm so should the patch-package be applied on prepare or postinstall? While trying with preinstall its throwing an error saying patch-package is not found.

[danieldunderfelt]

@ds300 so when will v6 leave beta? At least the beta is installable with npm, so it's not a huge issue, but people who are looking to patch package.json need to be aware about the beta and actively install it.

And yes, the beta works very well, so far as this issue is concerned!

[ds300]

Closing this to tidy up, final 6.0.0 release will happen soon 🎉

[nerdaliciousCH]

How to make an empty --exclude that doesn't match anything?? so --include 'package\.json$' --exclude '$'. That doesn't work for me :D

[dawnmist]

@nerdaliciousCH try making up a string that might be a filename but isn't.
e.g. --exclude 'IAmNotARealFile.txt'

The '$' in a regexp string means "at the end of the line" (or "end of the string" for something like filename strings). By having nothing before the $, you're actually matching every filename because every filename will have an end of the string.