Failed to replace env in config: ${NPM_AUTH_TOKEN} after adding cache: npm

[yoavain-sundaysky]

After adding
cache: npm
I'm getting this error

Error: Failed to replace env in config: ${NPM_AUTH_TOKEN}

.npmrc file:

//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken=${NPM_AUTH_TOKEN}

Environment: Windows
node version: 12.x

Here's a sample failed run:
https://github.com/yoavain/create-windowless-app/pull/875/checks?check_run_id=2982161723

Full error:

Run actions/setup-node@v2.2.0
  with:
    node-version: 12.x
    cache: npm
    always-auth: false
    check-latest: false
    token: ***
Found in cache @ C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /D /S /C "C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\npm.cmd config get cache"
Error: Failed to replace env in config: ${NPM_AUTH_TOKEN}
    at C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\config\core.js:415:13
    at String.replace (<anonymous>)
    at envReplace (C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\config\core.js:411:12)
    at parseField (C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\config\core.js:389:7)
    at C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\config\core.js:330:24
    at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)
    at Conf.add (C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\config\core.js:328:23)
    at ConfigChain.addString (C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\node_modules\config-chain\index.js:244:8)
    at Conf.<anonymous> (C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\config\core.js:316:10)
    at C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\node_modules\graceful-fs\graceful-fs.js:123:16
C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\npm.js:59
      throw new Error('npm.load() required')
      ^

Error: npm.load() required
    at Object.get (C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\npm.js:59:13)
    at process.errorHandler (C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\node_modules\npm\lib\utils\error-handler.js:208:32)
    at process.emit (events.js:314:20)
    at process._fatalException (internal/process/execution.js:165:25)
Error: The process 'C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\node\12.22.1\x64\npm.cmd' failed with exit code 7

[dmitry-shibanov]

Hello @yoavain-sundaysky. Thank you for your report. As I know .npmrc file used as a configuration file and applies to command of npm. We use npm config get cache to identify directory for caching, that is why you get errors that NPM_AUTH_TOKEN is not assigned. You can add NPM_AUTH_TOKEN as environment variable.

    - name: Setup NodeJS
      uses: actions/setup-node@v2.2.0
      with:
        node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
       cache: npm
      env:
        NPM_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_AUTH_TOKEN }}

Also you can specify NPM_AUTH_TOKEN as a job environment variable.

[yoavain]

Thanks! That works.
Maybe this should be in the README

[dmitry-shibanov]

Hello @yoavain. Thank you for your response. For now I think we should not update documentation. If we see more issues related to this case, we'll update documentation.
For now I'm closing the issue.