npm link can link to same directory -> Maximum call stack size exceeded

[sk22]

I'm opening this issue because:

• npm is crashing.
• npm is doing something I don't understand.
• npm is producing an incorrect install.
• Other (see below for feature requests):

What's going wrong?

After npm link-ing a module I apparently tried to link it to the very same directory. Maybe I did something similar, not sure about that, but it ended up like that:

C:\Users\samuel\Code\eslint-config-sk22\node_modules\eslint-config-sk22 is linked to C:\Users\samuel\Code\eslint-config-sk22.

So, almost every command related to npm fails with an RangeError similar to this:

RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at exports.create (C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install\node.js:33:25)
    at C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install\node.js:36:14
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at exports.create (C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install\node.js:33:25)
    at C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install\node.js:36:14
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at exports.create (C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install\node.js:33:25)
    at normalizeTree (C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install.js:377:5)
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at normalizeTree (C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install.js:379:19)
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at normalizeTree (C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install.js:379:19)
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at normalizeTree (C:\Users\samuel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install.js:379:19)
    at Array.forEach (native)

How can the CLI team reproduce the problem?

1. Create a directory named bug-test
2. In that directory, init a new npm module: npm init -y
3. Run npm link
4. Run npm link bug-test in the same directory
5. See that ./node_modules/bug-test is linked to .
6. Try to install a package, e.g. lodash: npm install lodash
7. Watch the error happen: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/3214ba732ded61f00312fe29e3d49182

supporting information:

• npm -v prints: 5.0.4
• node -v prints: v8.0.0
• npm config get registry prints: https://registry.npmjs.org/
• Windows, OS X/macOS, or Linux? Windows