[BUG] npm install --link should respect the save options (imho)

[richardeschloss]

What / Why

Hi, I appreciate all the work you've done up to this point. I think it would really improve my workflow if "npm install --link" respected the save options. I really love npm install --link. However, it wasn't respecting my save options. When I develop locally, I prefer to install to the global folder and then just link to that. However, when I push to CI/CD systems, it's easier for those systems to simply "npm install" and just consume whatever deps are listed in the package.json. Other times, I have a scaffolded project, where it will consistently use the same deps; for example a Vue project with linters and test framework. It's super easy for me to re-use those package.json files and run npm install --link to install link to the deps in the new project.

Question: will arborist be essentially solving this issue in v7?

Possible solution in the works, that I may agree with: https://github.com/npm/rfcs/blob/latest/accepted/0011-npm-link-changes.md
--> If this instead lands in v7, then that makes my open issue closed and unneeded..

When

• 05/2010

Where

• Local machine

How

Current Behavior

npm install --link

Installs whatever is listed in package.json as deps and devDeps into the global folder, and then links to that. That's cool! But, consider the next case:

npm install --link ava

Installs ava into the global folder but...doesn't update package.json :(. This means if I wanted to share the package.json file with a CI / CD sytem and have it "npm install", it will install the deps in package.json, but it will never install ava.

Steps to Reproduce

npm install -D --link [some package]

Expected Behavior

• In the steps above, when I use "-D", I want the package to be saved to devDependencies because that's kinda the deal that was promised by the manual

Who

• n/a

References

• I didn't just want to report the issue...with good intentions, I submitted PR Respects the save options for npm --link #1295. This does exactly what I want it to do but for some reason I can't get the CI system to get passed node . install, even though that works on my local machine.

[darcyclarke]

npm v6 is no longer in active development; We will continue to push security releases to v6 at our team's discretion as-per our Support Policy.

If your bug is reproducible on v7, please re-file this issue using our new issue template.

If your issue was a feature request, please consider opening a new RRFC or RFC. If your issue was a question or other idea that was not CLI-specific, consider opening a discussion on our feedback repo

Closing: This is an automated message.