prepublishOnly runs when installing packages from git

[SystemParadox]

Verify latest release

• I verified that the issue exists in the latest pnpm release

pnpm version

8.7.1

Which area(s) of pnpm are affected? (leave empty if unsure)

Hooks

Link to the code that reproduces this issue or a replay of the bug

No response

Reproduction steps

• Create package foo with a prepublishOnly script and push to github
• Create a package and pnpm i github:foobar/foo

Describe the Bug

When installing from git/github pnpm runs the prepublishOnly script. This will almost certainly fail.

In #5876 (comment) @zkochan posted this:

If you have a git-hosted dependency then it needs to be built. I don't think this can be changed. All we can do is to throw an exception if there is a git-hosted dependency that needs to be built and ignore-scripts is used.

This is absolutely incorrect. See npm/npm#10074. The entire purpose of prepublishOnly existing (rather than prepublish) is to not do this. What you are looking for is prepare.

See https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v9/using-npm/scripts:

prepare

• Runs BEFORE the package is packed, i.e. during npm publish and npm pack
• Runs on local npm install without any arguments
• NOTE: If a package being installed through git contains a prepare script, its dependencies and devDependencies will be installed, and the prepare script will be run, before the package is packaged and installed.

prepublishOnly

• Runs BEFORE the package is prepared and packed, ONLY on npm publish.

Expected Behavior

prepublishOnly should NEVER, EVER be run on any kind of install. It should only be run if the user is actually publishing.

Which Node.js version are you using?

16.20.1

Which operating systems have you used?

• macOS
• Windows
• Linux

If your OS is a Linux based, which one it is? (Include the version if relevant)

Debian 11

[SystemParadox]

@zkochan thank you very much for the speedy response!