No documentation for "npm login"?

[rehierl]

• executing "npm login" on a terminal will work. it will ask for Username, Password, Email and then confirms successful login to "https://registry.npmjs.org/".
• so that command is actually supported!

markdown files

• npm-logout.md - exists
• npm-login.md - does not

documentation on npmjs.com

• logout page on npmjs.com - exists
• login page on npmjs.com - does not

supporting information:

• npm -v prints: "4.2.0"
• node -v prints: "v7.9.0"
• npm config get registry prints: "https://registry.npmjs.org/"
• Windows, OS X/macOS, or Linux?: Linux x64

[kenany]

npm login is an alias for npm adduser, hence why it doesn't get it's own page (because it would be an exact duplicate of the npm adduser page).

[rehierl]

"npm login" is an alias for "npm adduser"

Oh I see, thanks. I didn't look at that command because I didn't want to "add a new user".

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By letting "npm login" behave identical to "npm adduser", you essentially assume that they also have the exact same meaning. Isn't that a little problematic?

What happens if I accidentally mistype my login/name?
I assume that a new account will be created? Is that acceptable?

[kenany]

@rehierl Yup, you're right. A typo will create a new account, even though that's probably not what anyone wants to happen. See the previous discussions #4151 and #8337. My understanding is that eventually, npm adduser and npm login will become separate from each other.

[rehierl]

Ha, I almost expected a "Now that won't happen." kind of answer.
Thanks again KenanY.

Closing this issue, because the missing documentation turned out to be no mishap.

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IMHO, I'd even deprecate/remove the adduser command because account creation should be done by signing up directly to a registry. Also, if the maintainers of a private registry wanted to control who is publishing, they would have to partially disable that command by returning an error if the username doesn't exist.

And I wouldn't add a 'delete user' command as mentioned by othiym23 in 8337. This would be asking for abuse. A user should have to directly log into a registry and use the account settings to mark his/her account for deletion.

[estaub]

@rehieri It took me 10 or so minutes of googling to finally come across this thread to understand where login is documented. It being an alias for something else isn't a good reason not to document it - docs are for people who don't know that! Other doc on the site, such as https://docs.npmjs.com/private-modules/intro , use login, which is why I needed to look it up in the first place.

It's fine if the doc is just a "See adduser" link.