Skip to content

[feature request] Indent output of nested npm commands #155

@piranna

Description

@piranna

Is there an existing issue for this?

  • I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

When running nested npm commands like implicit pre and post scripts (pretest, prepack, preinstall...), they are run on new spawned processes, with the only reference to where they start by the process banner, but there's no indication of where they end or their relationship, since output is flat.

Expected Behavior

I would like that when a npm command is exec as direct or indirect result of a previous npm command, that its output gets indented, so it's easier to see where they start and end and who's its parent npm process. To do it, we would need to do:

  1. detect we are running as a nested npm command, if not proceed as usual.
  2. use https://nodejs.org/api/tty.html or https://nodejs.org/api/readline.html to create a virtual TTY where to run the command, instead of using inherit. Also handle the resize event, and maybe mimic someway the commands they are not running on a TTY if the parent process doesn't does it.
  3. process the output to the stdout and stderr of the virtual TTY, and indent it for each new newline that arrives

Steps To Reproduce

No response

Environment

  • npm: 9.6.7
  • Node: v20.3.1
  • OS: Ubuntu Linux 23.04
  • platform: x86_64

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions