Sorting arrays in package.json

[acoll]

I'm sure this will be a duplicate but I couldn't find the issue. I use browserify transforms in a 3rd party module. They are defined in the package.json like this:

"browserify": {
   "transform": ["jadeify", "babelify", "brfs"]
}

The problem i'm having is when the module is installed with npm install the array gets sorted and the transforms are then in an invalid order. It looks like its on line 6 of npm/lib/utils/deep-sort-object.js https://github.com/npm/npm/blob/master/lib/utils/deep-sort-object.js#L6 and its called from here https://github.com/npm/npm/blob/master/lib/install/update-package-json.js#L14. I removed this sort and tested and I get the array in the order I expect (the order it was defined).

[terinjokes]

This field has been documented as part of module-deps for a long while: would be great to either revert the change or get the field opted out.

[ghost]

I can confirm this bug. Here's how to reproduce it:

npm install -g json
cd /tmp; mkdir xxx yyy
echo '{"name":"xxx","version":"1.2.3","array":["z","y","x"]}' > xxx/package.json
cd yyy
npm install file://$PWD/../xxx
json array < node_modules/xxx/package.json

output:

[
  "x",
  "y",
  "z"
]