Be more verbose when saving to package.json fails

[thewilli]

If saving (dev-) dependencies to package.json fails, e.g. to a parse error in the package.json file, the problem is silently ignored.

As saving to package.json is only done when the user explicitly wants it, by using --save or --save-dev, there should be an error message if saving was not successful.

[smikes]

Thanks for the bug report. You're right - if the package.json could not be read, and this blocks an --install --save or --install --save-dev, then npm should at least report this and possibly even refuse to do the install.

[faiq]

this is a good feature request, at the very least a warning should show up

👍 for this feature.

[busches]

Is this still a problem in the latest npm?

[npm-robot]

We're closing this issue as it has gone thirty days without activity. In our experience if an issue has gone thirty days without any activity then it's unlikely to be addressed. In the case of bug reports, often the underlying issue will be addressed but finding related issues is quite difficult and often incomplete.

If this was a bug report and it is still relevant then we encourage you to open it again as a new issue. If this was a feature request then you should feel free to open it again, or even better open a PR.

For more information about our new issue aging policies and why we've instituted them please see our blog post.