`npm run-script` doesn't work on windows when the script contains multiple commands

[balupton]

If I have:

{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "node ./out/test/everything-test.js",
    "prepublish": "./node_modules/.bin/projectz compile; npm test"
  }
}

And I run npm run-script prepublish on windows, no script will execute.

C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi [dev-cakefile-replace +0 ~6 -0]> npm run-script prepublish

> ambi@2.1.4 prepublish C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi
> node ./node_modules/projectz/bin/projectz compile; npm test

If I run the scripts manually, it works:

C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi [dev-cakefile-replace +0 ~6 -0]> node ./node_modules/projectz/bin/projectz compile; npm test
info: Initialising project
info: Initialised project
info: Loading changes
info: Loaded 2 contributors from bevry/ambi repository
info: Loaded changes
info: Writing changes...
info: Writing package file: C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi\package.json
info: Writing package file: C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi\bower.json
info: Writing package file: C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi\component.json
info: Skipping package file: jquery
info: Writing readme file: readme
info: Writing readme file: history
info: Skipping readme file: contributing
info: Skipping readme file: backers
info: Writing readme file: license
info: Wrote changes
info: Saved changes

> ambi@2.1.4 test C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi
> node ./out/test/everything-test.js

ambi
ambi > should handle result on successful synchronous functions
ambi > should handle result on successful synchronous functions OK
ambi > should handle result on successful asynchronous functions
ambi > should handle result on successful asynchronous functions OK
ambi > should handle returned errors on unsuccessful synchronous functions
ambi > should handle returned errors on unsuccessful synchronous functions OK
ambi > should handle callbacked errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions
ambi > should handle callbacked errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions OK
ambi > should ignore returned errors on successfull asynchronous functions
ambi > should ignore returned errors on successfull asynchronous functions OK
ambi > should ignore returned errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions
ambi > should ignore returned errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions OK
ambi > should NOT handle thrown errors on unsuccessful synchronous functions
ambi > should NOT handle thrown errors on unsuccessful synchronous functions OK
ambi > should NOT handle thrown errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions
ambi > should NOT handle thrown errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions OK
ambi > should NOT handle asynchronous thrown errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions
ambi > should NOT handle asynchronous thrown errors on unsuccessful asynchronous functions OK
ambi OK

9/9 tests ran successfully, everything passed
C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi [dev-cakefile-replace +0 ~6 -0]>

[balupton]

Hrmmm, running the joined commands via child_process.exec doesn't work either:

C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\GitHub\ambi [dev-cakefile-replace +0 ~6 -0]> node -e "require('child_process').exec('node ./node_modules/projectz/bin/projectz compile; npm test', {env:process.env, cwd:process.cwd()}, console.log)"
null '' ''

[bear]

npm script runs are handled on linux/osx by calling sh so I would imagine on windows it is done by calling cmd.exe (or whatever your environment has defined) and as such I can't imagine you could expect ; to work across all OS's

even on linux I have trouble getting complex command lines to survive the journey thru nodejs and npm's script runs - so I just got used to creating wrapper bash scripts and letting the shebang line tell sh that it needs to spawn bash

i'm wondering if you can do something similar - create a foo.sh script and see if powershell's linux-like shell handling lets you get your commands run

[isaacs]

Commands are passed verbatim to either cmd or sh. Note that on OS X and some Linuxes, sh is actually bash with the (misnamed!) POSIXLY_CORRECT flag turned on.

Keep your command lines simple. A bash script won't work on Windows, for obvious reasons. Write a node program, or better yet, just don't use an install command. Presumably your prepublish script could just be written as a Node program, and run npm test as a spawn at the end.

Also, never ever write ./node_modules/.bin/ in your scripts. Seriously, that should just throw. What if the dep is somewhere else, installed globally, or as a parent's dep? npm puts ./node_modules/.bin in the PATH environ for a reason. Do not tightly couple to non-portable platform-specific paths! </rant>

[rlidwka]

What if the dep is somewhere else, installed globally, or as a parent's dep?

1. As far as I know, if a dependency is installed globally or elsewhere, npm install won't find it and would install it locally anyway. So this command line would work.
2. As far as I know, npm run-script doesn't handle parent's dep case correctly as well, so it's the same deal in this case.

So the only case when ./node_modules/.bin/ is actually worse than npm run-script is when a dependency is installed both as a parent and globally. Hmm, I suppose you're right though.

[plato-cambrian]

I want to both run bower install and update my webdriver during postinstall; with the same package.json usable on both windows and linux.

Is there way that will let both these scripts run without making a new file? Here's what I am doing now:
"postinstall": "node node_modules/bower/bin/bower install; node node_modules/protractor/bin/webdriver-manager update"

The relative paths are because I don't want to assume bower or protractor are installed globally.

[maranomynet]

@balupton, this should work:

"prepublish": "./node_modules/.bin/projectz compile && npm test"

The only 'catch' is that the second command (npm test) won't run if the first one fails.

[othiym23]

@maranomynet the ./node_modules/.bin/ part of that path is redundant. As @isaacs says, npm run-script takes care of putting node_modules/.bin on the PATH for you.

[maranomynet]

oh, I assumed the semi-colon was part of his problem, because on Windows command-line semicolon delimits parameters, instead of operations.

I stumbled upon this post as I was dealing with two-step package.json scripts not running on Windows, because of this semi-colon issue.

As soon as I changed the semi-colon to & (windows-only replacement for ;) or && (conditional) everything started running smoothly. And && works cross-platform.

(http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds_shelloverview.mspx?mfr=true)