[BUG] Windows: npm is unable to access .npmrc when it's set to hidden

[MilesBHuff]

• Version: node: v10.18.1; npm: 6.13.4
• Platform: Windows 10 64-bit
• Subsystem: npm install

As we all know, on POSIX systems, putting a dot before a file's name makes it "hidden". In Windows, it works a bit differently: dots don't hide files, but there is a properties checkbox that does. When you set .npmrc to "hidden" in this way on a Windows machine, npm reports the following error: Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, open $HOME/.npmrc. According to nodejs/node#5261, which was fixed, the same issue previously existed for .node_repl_history. Can you fix it for .npmrc too?

(Bug report moved from nodejs/node#31634)

[yanoryuichi]

Hidden attribute in Windows is different from dot files in UNIX, it's a kind of ACL setting by SELinux. Putting config files under %USERPROFILE% is a bad way in Windows in the first place. They should be under %APPDATA%, that's hidden by default. Users don't see .npmrc and not need to set it to hidden. It's the same problem in yarn. yarnpkg/yarn#8403

[darcyclarke]

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If your bug is preproducible 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

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