Installing npm on production Server broke other server Software #2678
Description
Hi Guys,
We installed npm on a server a week or so ago and had no problems. Today however we restarted a different program running on that Linux server and it didn't start-up or run at all correctly.
Have worked out why and its because of
https://raw.github.com/isaacs/npm/caafb7323708e113d100e3e8145b949ed7a16c22/lib/utils/completion.sh
Specifically:-
COMP_WORDBREAKS=${COMP_WORDBREAKS/=/}
COMP_WORDBREAKS=${COMP_WORDBREAKS/@/}
export COMP_WORDBREAKS
Removing characters from this variable which is potentially used by other software on the server (or in our case, is used) has caused us a bit of a problem.
I think this method should perhaps be reviewed and amended so that installing npm cannot cause problems for other programs that also make use of that variable.
What might be the reason/s NPM needs this to happen and if we changed it so on our systems where NPM is installed, to use what exists by default might we end up breaking on the NPM side?
Many Thanks