npm run --production doesn't work in Angular apps

[TetianaNazarova]

Which @angular/* package(s) are the source of the bug?

compiler

Is this a regression?

Yes

Description

I tried on 2 projects to do below described things and got the same error in the both cases.

1. I deleted node_modules folder from the Angular app.
2. Then made:
   npm install --production
   with intention for faster and more optimized deploy without DevDependencies for the prod.
3. Then on
   npm run start
   or
   npm run build
   I got a such error:

There is the same on build - npm run build - command

The same output is for npm run build --prod

and for npm run build --production

Please provide a link to a minimal reproduction of the bug

https://github.com/TatyanaMolchanova/AngularBlog

Please provide the exception or error you saw

PS E:\myProjects\AngularBlog> npm run start

> blog@0.0.0 start E:\myProjects\AngularBlog
> ng serve

'ng' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! blog@0.0.0 start: `ng serve`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the blog@0.0.0 start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\npm-cache\_logs\2022-01-20T09_53_15_270Z-debug.log
PS E:\myProjects\AngularBlog>

Please provide the environment you discovered this bug in (run ng version)

_                      _                 ____ _     ___ 
    / \   _ __   __ _ _   _| | __ _ _ __     / ___| |   |_ _|
Ivy Workspace: Yes

Package                             Version
-------------------------------------------------------------
@angular-devkit/architect           0.1001.4
@angular-devkit/build-angular       0.1002.0
@angular-devkit/core                10.1.4
@angular-devkit/schematics          10.1.4
@angular/animations                 10.1.4
@angular/cli                        10.1.4
@angular/common                     10.1.4
@angular/compiler                   10.1.4
@angular/compiler-cli               10.1.4
@angular/forms                      10.1.4
@angular/platform-browser           10.1.4
@angular/platform-browser-dynamic   10.1.4
@angular/pwa                        0.1002.0
@angular/router                     10.1.4
@schematics/angular                 10.1.4
@schematics/update                  0.1001.4
rxjs                                6.6.3
typescript                          4.0.3

Anything else?

'ng' is not recognized as an internal or external command

It's because the life meaning packages of Angular are in the DevDependincies.
So, npm install --production doesn't work for all Angular apps. I count that it's very bad.
It will be nice if this command work for Angular and then the deploy of Angular apps will be faster and lighter.

[alan-agius4]

Hi @TatyanaMolchanova,

This is expected.

Most of the devDependencies are needed to build/test your Angular application. Typically npm install --production is used on production server to install only dependencies that are required to run and already built the application on such use case is for SSR apps.

@angular/cli itself have numerous transitive dependencies which are not intended to be installed on production environments.

In many case the installation time when using npm install vs npm install --production is negligible.

[TetianaNazarova]

I have the project with SSR - https://github.com/TatyanaMolchanova/tanechka and I run usual build for this app without problem:
npm run build:ssr

But when I deleted node_modules and made:

1. npm install --production
2. npm run build:ssr
   Build failed with the error - please, see screenshots.
   
   'ng' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
   operable program or batch file.

So, this command npm install --production is not working for ALL Angular apps and I count that it's not good at all that the regular npm command is not working in any Angualr apps - client-side or server-side.

[alan-agius4]

This is expected since ng or the Angular CLI is not expected to be present on production servers.

Typically you want to run npm install --production postbuild and not prebuild, as this command should install dependencies that are required for the runtime of the application.

[angular-automatic-lock-bot]

This issue has been automatically locked due to inactivity.
Please file a new issue if you are encountering a similar or related problem.

Read more about our automatic conversation locking policy.

_{This action has been performed automatically by a bot.}