Postinstall not fit for Windows

[waiblinger]

Hi,
since the update yesterday I can't install my modules, since the postinstall script uses "||", which isn`t supported on Windows in the given context.

`At line:1 char:53
+  node -e "try{require('./_postinstall')}catch(e){}" || exit 0
+                                                     ~~
The token '||' is not a valid statement separator in this version.
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidEndOfLine`

[medikoo]

@waiblinger thanks for the report, what terminal are you using on Windows? I was actually testing it on Windows prior release and all worked well.

[waiblinger]

I use the integrated terminal in Visual Studio Code (so cmd). The project ran yesterday befor the changes.

[waiblinger]

@medikoo I tried powershell as well. Same problem

[ilyachalov]

@medikoo I'm trying to install 'gulp-cli' from 'npm' and I have the same problem (Windows 10):

|| is pipeline chain operator. They appeared in 'PowerShell 7':

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_pipeline_chain_operators

'Windows Powershell' (version 5.1) comes with 'Windows 10', executable file 'powershell.exe'.
'Powershell 7' can be obtained separately, executable file 'pwsh.exe'.
'Windows Powershell' (version 5.1) and 'Powershell 7' installed side by side.

'Windows Powershell' (version 5.1) does not have an pipeline chain operator ||.

I think the line
powershell -c node -e "try{require('./_postinstall')}catch(e){}" || exit 0
need to replace with
pwsh -c node -e "try{require('./_postinstall')}catch(e){}" || exit 0

Then it will work for those who have installed 'PowerShell 7'.

[medikoo]

I think the line
powershell -c node -e "try{require('./_postinstall')}catch(e){}" || exit 0
need to replace with
pwsh -c node -e "try{require('./_postinstall')}catch(e){}" || exit 0

It's actually an npm that adds powershell -c, so it'll be good to confirm if that happens with latest npm version, and eventually report issue over there.

[ilyachalov]

@medikoo Thanks for the reply. I've already figured it out.

npm can be configured in command line:

> npm config set script-shell="pwsh"

And now I have succeeded (I also installed 'PowerShell 7'):

Thanks again. 🎉🎉🎉

[mrJli]

Windows 11, PowerShell 7.2.6, i try this npm config set script-shell="pwsh" but

[ilyachalov]

@mrJli Are you really running the installation in PowerShell? PowerShell command prompt usually looks like this PS C:\>. You have the command prompt shown as $. Perhaps you are using 'Git Bash' (or some other shell) rather than 'PowerShell'?

Can you show a screenshot without cropping the window title?

[mrJli]

@mrJli Are you really running the installation in PowerShell? PowerShell command prompt usually looks like this PS C:\>. You have the command prompt shown as $. Perhaps you are using 'Git Bash' (or some other shell) rather than 'PowerShell'?

Can you show a screenshot without cropping the window title?

[ilyachalov]

@mrJli Earlier it was about a mistake with operator ||. To fix this error I used 'PowerShell 7' and 'npm' setting npm config set script-shell="pwsh".

You have a different situation. You have a unary operator --, which is not needed there:

pwsh -c --  node -e "try{require('./_postinstall')}catch(e){}" || exit 0

'es5-ext' is responsible for part of the command:
https://github.com/medikoo/es5-ext/blob/main/package.json

 node -e "try{require('./_postinstall')}catch(e){}" || exit 0

I think 'npm' is responsible for the initial part:

pwsh -c -- 

Maybe it's a bug in npm:
npm/cli#5332

What version of 'npm' do you have (npm --version, I have 8.12.1)? Maybe you should use a different version of 'npm'.

[mrJli]

npm version - 8.19.2
i try to install 8.12.1 and all works, thanks

[rjwut-chg]

I have zero issue with the message and intent behind the postinstall script, but perhaps unintended consequences like this are a good argument for limiting that sort of thing to the README.md file instead.

[kieselai]

This was quite frustrating to figure out, since I was calling my script from PowerShell core, but this postinstall script was still being called from PowerShell 5. I haven't had issues on any other machine I've ran it on, but this one apparently didn't have pwsh configured as the "script-shell".
Results on Google simply suggested using the compatible syntax for PowerShell 5, which isn't helpful when it's not a script I'm executing directly.
It wasn't until going directly to this repo and looking at the open issues that I saw what the solution was. It's obvious in hindsight, but was a bit of a runaround getting here.
I know cross compatibility with windows is a pain, but this is the first package I've ran into this particular issue.

If it helps, here are the versions of software/libs I'm running:
PowerShell: 7.3.4
Node: v18.15.0
pnpm: 8.6.3
npm: 9.4.0

And the solution for me was to set pwsh as the script-shell:
npm config set script-shell="pwsh"

[kieselai]

The more I look into it, I think the specific problem might occur if PowerShell 5 (or earlier) was previously specified as the script-shell. cmd.exe actually does allow "||" and "&&" operators, so I think the problem is specifically with older versions of PowerShell being the default script-shell.

[kieselai]

It would have been PowerShell 6 and earlier with the problem, my mistake

[medikoo]

Fixed with v0.10.63 release

[mar777121]

Unfortunately it breaks gulp-cli installation, when using older node version:
eg. 16.17.0

[medikoo]

@mar777121 ensure you rely on latest v0.10.63, as mentioned above that issue was fixed

[mar777121]

Thanks @medikoo, I've checked, it does use the latest version.
Sorry, forgot to mention that the issue happens under alpine php latest image, using nvm as the package manager.

18.84 npm WARN deprecated [email protected]: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-url#deprecated
18.84 npm WARN deprecated [email protected]: Please see https://github.com/lydell/urix#deprecated
18.95 npm WARN deprecated [email protected]: https://github.com/lydell/resolve-url#deprecated
19.06 npm WARN deprecated [email protected]: See https://github.com/lydell/source-map-resolve#deprecated
21.07 npm notice
21.07 npm notice New major version of npm available! 8.15.0 -> 10.4.0
21.07 npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v10.4.0
21.07 npm notice Run npm install -g [email protected] to update!
21.07 npm notice
21.07 npm ERR! code 127
21.07 npm ERR! path /root/.nvm/versions/node/v16.17.0/lib/node_modules/gulp-cli/node_modules/es5-ext
21.08 npm ERR! command failed
21.08 npm ERR! command sh /tmp/postinstall-cac6c5c8.sh
21.08 npm ERR! /tmp/postinstall-cac6c5c8.sh: line 1: node: Permission denied
21.08
21.08 npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
21.08 npm ERR! /root/.npm/_logs/2024-02-26T17_11_57_086Z-debug-0.log

[medikoo]

@mar777121 I understand that issue is, that this wasn't fixed completely, right? And not that patch introduced a new issue.
It's specific to Windows PowerShell (?)

[mar777121]

@medikoo Indeed, it seems that while patch fixed the windows PowerShell issue, introduced a new issue, specific to linux.
I haven't tested on ubuntu, but at least on alpine I'm getting the error provided in my previous message.
Issue is not present while using node version >= v18

[medikoo]

@mar777121 indeed so apparently we got #143 back (I totally forgot about this case).

Is anyone aware of a way which may fix the issue for both of the cases?

[medikoo]

@mar777121 I've decided to revert that fix, it's published with v0.10.64.

If anyone knows to how to fix the Windows issue, without introducing issues for Linux systems I'll be grateful for a hint