npm cli breaking changes

[darcyclarke]

This is the issue where we file our future breaking changes for the npm cli.

Breaking Changes:

1. Remove legacy lifecycle scripts support (ie. pre/post scripts)

[wraithgar]

Copied from v10 initiative

v11 and beyond

These are still future looking breaking changes that we want to keep in consideration going forward

### Breaking Changes:
- [ ] stop reading process.env.NODE in config for nodeBin
- [ ] remove man pages
- [ ] Remove install scripts support
- [ ] Support for reading `stdin` across **all** commands (ie. https://github.com/npm/rfcs/blob/3d5b2130504139bdc8a3b599923aa07d2ff79c96/accepted/0000-dependency-selector-syntax.md#commands-could-read-from-stdin)
- [ ] Support Package Distributions by default
- [ ] Consider changing strict-ssl default based on environment variables https://github.com/npm/make-fetch-happen/pull/257
- [ ] https://github.com/npm/npm-packlist/pull/168
- [ ] Revert all of the hacks around "globstar" in packlist.  Just use node-glob's patterns.

Features (v10 or v11 or beyond):

- [ ] New `npm link` experience
- [ ] Add new "lifecycle events" API - differentiate between scripts & events - user/project & dependency defined usecases)
- [ ] First-class `import-maps` Support
- [ ] Warn/error on unecessary config items in publishConfig

[ljharb]

Let's figure out the "store the range i asked for" change for v11 too?

[wraithgar]

I just lost an hour of my day to this "clever" helpful line. We should drop support for this.

https://github.com/npm/cli/blob/1114a12f2b4691d403d0863d4dca44f25580f57d/lib/cli-entry.js#L9-L12

  // if npm is called as "npmg" or "npm_g", then run in global mode.
  if (process.argv[1][process.argv[1].length - 1] === 'g') {
    process.argv.splice(1, 1, 'npm', '-g')
  }

$ node /Users/wraithgar/Development/npm/cli/branches/gar_semver-debug pkg set description='test'
npm ERR! code EPKGGLOBAL
npm ERR! There's no package.json file to manage on global mode

[wraithgar]

• Revert all of the hacks around "globstar" in packlist. Just use node-glob's patterns.

This is just a bug factory at this point.

[lukekarrys]

A few things I've found in the issue tracker lately that can't be fixed due to how they would likely break things:

• Make --silent truly silent (eg dont set up any process listeners) and create a net-new way of hiding only logging output. (The opposite could also be done). Then go through and remove all npm.silent checks. [BUG] Inconsistent --silent for npm install cli#4877 (comment)
• Make run-script banners a log event. They have been swapped to stderr for json mode, but I think they should always be on stderr. I think an open question would be if they should be called with output.error or as an actual log (maybe with a custom META prefix)? [BUG] When run script loglevel is ignored unless set to "silent" cli#3354 (comment)
• Apply --ignore-scripts to the prepare script when packing and publishing [BUG] --ignore-scripts is not respected by npm publish cli#3707 [BUG] npm pack and publish should not run hooks, or hooks need to have opt-out cli#7211 (comment)
• Make pack --json return an object like publish --json instead of an array
• Dont unwrap any single item arrays in view --json
• Set all json output on known top-level keys. I think those should be result and error to start (🚲 those names).

[wraithgar]

Repurposed this issue as the bucket for all breaking changes. Actual v11 roadmap is at #898

[reggi]

get rid of "populate deps on init" https://github.com/npm/init-package-json/blob/main/lib/default-input.js#L11-L39

[reggi]

get rid of the idea of "package.json as comment in a index file" https://github.com/npm/package-json/blob/main/lib/index.js#L141-L147 😆

[ljharb]

@reggi does that last one mean that pre-existing gists might stop being npm-installable?

[wraithgar]

@ljharb it's a chesterton's fence issue. We want to explain why it's in the road and decide if we want to remove it. If you have a small gist example that could help us add an explanatory comment in our package-json parser.

ETA: it may also help us add better regression tests for this use case.

[ljharb]

Chesterton's fence says to not remove it until you can explain why it's in the road :-p

https://gist.github.com/isaacs/1837112 is the original canonical example. I'll see if I can find some modern usages.