Desktop: Dev branch not working with node 16

[AliceHincu]

Operating system

Windows

Joplin version

last version from dev branch

Desktop version info

No response

Current behaviour

Steps to reproduce:

• Before installing Node, I deleted everything related to nvm, node, yarn, and npm. This means uninstalling Node from Control Panel and deleting everything related to them inside %APPDATA% (including caching)
• I installed Node 16.20.2 from here
• I followed the steps from your BUILD.md (I did not open Visual Studio Code at all since, every command was ran with Windows Powershell as Administrator )
• After running yarn install, this was the output:

➤ YN0008: │ husky@patch:husky@npm%3A3.1.0#./.yarn/patches/husky-npm-3.1.0-5cc13e4e34.patch::version=3.1.0&hash=d9603f&locator=root%40workspace%3A. must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ keytar@npm:7.9.0 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ sharp@npm:0.33.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ sqlite3@npm:5.1.6 [ea905] must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ canvas@npm:2.11.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ tesseract.js@npm:5.0.4 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ core-js@npm:3.33.1 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ core-js-pure@npm:3.33.1 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/fontawesome-free@npm:5.15.4 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ electron@npm:29.1.0 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/fontawesome-common-types@npm:0.2.36 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/fontawesome-common-types@npm:6.4.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/fontawesome-common-types@npm:6.1.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0007: │ root@workspace:. must be built because it never has been before or the last one failed
➤ YN0008: │ @joplin/app-mobile@workspace:packages/app-mobile must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core@npm:1.2.36 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/free-regular-svg-icons@npm:5.15.4 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons@npm:5.15.4 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core@npm:6.4.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/free-brands-svg-icons@npm:6.4.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/free-regular-svg-icons@npm:6.4.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons@npm:6.4.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core@npm:6.1.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0008: │ @fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons@npm:6.1.2 must be rebuilt because its dependency tree changed
➤ YN0009: │ root@workspace:. couldn't be built successfully (exit code 1, logs can be found here: <path_to_build_log>\build.log)

The last line that starts with root@workspace is problematic. I also attached the logs, and there you can find the following errors:

➤ YN0000: [@joplin/app-desktop]: Error: Cannot find module 'readline/promises'
[�[90m00:53:17�[39m] Error: Command failed with exit code 1: yarn run buildParallel

Expected behaviour

Regarding the first error: I searched on the Node website, Readline section, the correct syntax:

• the correct syntax for Node 16 is this one
• the correct syntax for Node 17 and above is this one

Fix:

• Either update the documentation here from version 16 to 17
• Or change inside joplin>packages>default-plugins>utils>waitForCliInput.ts the first line from const readline = require('readline/promises'); to const readline = require('readline');

After this change, I was able to start the application. The second error was because of @joplin/lib, but I do not know the solution.

Logs

error node 16.txt

[AliceHincu]

Also, I saw on the internet( 1, 2, 3 ) a lot of people having similar errors (including me) like these:

Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink 'C:\joplin\node_modules\@babel\code-frame\lib\index.js'
Internal Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, open ...

Nothing from the internet worked. It didn't allow me to run the commands for clearing the cache because of this error . I ran everything as an administrator, I didn't have anything Node-related opened, I tried multiple versions of Node using nvm, etc..

After I ran npm list -g --depth 0 , I saw I had multiple versions. I did the steps that I mentioned in the beginning:

• I uninstalled everything related to nvm, node, yarn, and npm
• I cleared the cache from AppData (Local + Roaming) - meaning I deleted the folders manually
• I deleted and cloned the repository again (but I think deleting the file yarn.lock should be enough)
• I installed node without nvm (and I added it to the PATH) and ran the commands with Windows PowerShell (not VSC terminal), and it worked.

So, I made sure to have a fresh start before cloning and working on this project. I think there can be some issues with multiple versions of npm/yarn (since I also had installed yarn through npm before). Maybe this helps someone in the future.

[laurent22]

Yes I think we need more than Node 16 by now, and the doc and other places should be updated. I use Node v19.6.1. Could you check if it's working with that version?

[AliceHincu]

I followed the same steps for clearing everything Node-related (I forgot to mention but in Program Files the folder "nodejs" should also be deleted since I had problems with it)

I installed Node 19.9.0 and after running yarn install, I can confirm that the desktop version worked with no problems, without having to modify anything. So the problem is with Node 16.20.2.