[BUG] npm help <term> throws on windows

[melusc]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

Using npm help ls throws on windows (because it is an invalid url, because it encodes backslashes):

npm ERR! Invalid URL: file://C:%5CUsers%5Clucas%5CAppData%5CRoaming%5Cnpm%5Cnode_modules%5Cnpm%5Cdocs%5Coutput%5Ccommands%5Cnpm-ls.html

Expected Behavior

It should produce and open a valid url with

• either non-encoded backslashes
• or forward slashes for file:// urls (since firefox and chrome normalise to that anyway).

Steps To Reproduce

1. Run npm help ls on Windows
2. See error about an invalid url as seen above.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• Node: 17.0.1
• npm: 8.1.1

[fritzy]

I was able to reproduce this with a clean install of Node.js using the MSI installer.

[onyri]

the file protocol prefix must be either 'file://localhost/' or simply 'file:///'.
apparently in Windows the prefix 'file://' is no longer accepted.