Export NODE_EXE from the npm shell script

[lucastheisen]

What's the feature?

Export NODE_EXE from the bin/npm shell script.

What problem is the feature intended to solve?

node_sass requires:

Some users have reported issues installing on Ubuntu due to node being registered to another package. Follow the official NodeJS docs to install NodeJS so that #!/usr/bin/env node correctly resolved.

But npm uses the version of node in the same folder as npm or npm.cmd. If your global version differs, then it node-sass fails because it has an accompanying binary compiled per version of node. If you were to export the NODE_EXE variable you create, then other packages that need to spawn a node process could use the same instance as the npm command that spawned it.

To reproduce:
Install one version of node globally (say 6.9.5), then create a per project node installation folder (by unpacking one of these: https://nodejs.org/dist/v7.8.0/ into your project folder). Add node_sass as a dependency of your project (from the root folder for your project, run: .\node\npm install node-sass --save-dev). Then create an empty file called foo.scss, and add a script to your package.json:

  "scripts": {
    "sass": "node-sass foo.scss foo.css"
  }

When you run this .\node\npm run sass, you will see an error like:

Error: Missing binding /tmp/foo/node_modules/node-sass/vendor/buildinfo/binding.node
Node Sass could not find a binding for your current environment: buildinfo with Node.js 6.x

If, however, you were to export NODE_EXE, i could request that the node-sass project check for that value.

Is the absence of this feature blocking you or your team? If so, how?

Not really, but i currently need a workaround that prepends my project node folder to PATH. This is rather inconvenient given that the npm script itself detects the proper node instance.

Is this feature similar to an existing feature in another tool?

Its similar to what you are already doing (detecting the location of NODE_EXE). It just enables anything spawned by npm to leverage that detection.

Is this a feature you're prepared to implement, with support from the npm CLI team?

Sure, but its just a one line addition to your bin/npm script.

[lucastheisen]

I created a corresponding issue on node-sass that would make use of this fix.

[lucastheisen]

Never mind... just found --scripts-prepend-node-path, works like a charm!