npm@3 given the same module list, not linking in same order

[phated]

As per @iarna at gulpjs/gulp-cli#7 (comment)

I haven't tested this, but a gulp core contributor tested and linked results at gulpjs/gulp-cli#7 (comment)

[othiym23]

Thanks for the report, @phated. We're probably going to have to take a few passes at getting this resolved in a way that feels good to everybody, but I imagine @iarna has a solution in mind for this (and the other issue you filed related to this) in a nearish term.

[iarna]

I haven't been able to reproduce this one, but as an ordering bug I think some quality time thinking about the code will find the problem area.

[yocontra]

Any ETA on fixing this? We aren't able to release gulp 4.0 until this is fixed

[iamstarkov]

im waitin gulp4 for almost one year, pls fix it 🐱

[iarna]

I would love the gulp folks to provide some explanation for why this is a blocker for them. This was, if anything, worse in npm@2.

[iarna]

Looking back in gulpjs/gulp-cli#7 it looks like npm@2 used to just explode. With #8996 this may be good enough.

And digging into gulpjs/gulp-cli#7 I'd really like to see this reproduced with a current release, as I'm skeptical that it can still happen– binaries are linked into place by the build action, and that's done serially (and our serial actions happen in a deterministic order):

    [doSerialActions, 'build', staging, todo, trackLifecycle.newGroup('build')],

[heikki]

#!/bin/sh

counter=0

function install {
    let counter++
    npm install gulp gulp-cli > /dev/null && printf "install $counter, gulp bin -> " && readlink node_modules/.bin/gulp && install
}

echo "Running 'npm install gulp gulp-cli' repeatedly"
rm -fr node_modules
install

With npm 3.2.2 I get this output:

Running 'npm install gulp gulp-cli' repeatedly
install 1, gulp bin -> ../gulp-cli/bin/gulp.js
install 2, gulp bin -> ../gulp/bin/gulp.js
install 3, gulp bin -> ../gulp/bin/gulp.js
install 4, gulp bin -> ../gulp/bin/gulp.js
install 5, gulp bin -> ../gulp/bin/gulp.js
install 6, gulp bin -> ../gulp/bin/gulp.js
install 7, gulp bin -> ../gulp/bin/gulp.js

[iarna]

Ok, what I see is deterministic ordering for the initial run, and for the additional runs, but a difference between the first run and those additional runs.

[iarna]

So followup runs consistently produce this order:

npm sill diffTrees update gulp-cli@0.3.0
npm sill diffTrees update gulp@3.9.0

Which is consistent with @heikki's output and with theory (we there are no cross module dependencies we sort by path length).

[iarna]

Likewise a fresh install consistently produces this order: (gulp and gulp-cli are installed last after allll their deps)

npm sill diffTrees add gulp@3.9.0
npm sill diffTrees add gulp-cli@0.3.0

[iarna]

I think the latter is happening due to gulp being a dev-dep of gulp-cli. The question is, why doesn't this rule also apply with the first scenario.

[iarna]

Scheduling this for Aug 20th's release.

[phated]

Excellent, thanks!

[othiym23]

Landed as d395a6b, included in npm@3.3.1. Thanks for reporting this and for your patience, Blaine!

[phated]

🎆 🍰 @othiym23 @iarna