Updating Angular CLI & Core: "Cannot read property 'split' of null"

[PaulV96]

Bug Report or Feature Request (mark with an x)

- [X] bug report -> please search issues before submitting
- [ ] feature request

Command (mark with an x)

- [ ] new
- [ ] build
- [ ] serve
- [ ] test
- [ ] e2e
- [ ] generate
- [ ] add
- [X] update
- [ ] lint
- [ ] xi18n
- [ ] run
- [ ] config
- [ ] help
- [ ] version
- [ ] doc

Versions

• Node version: 8.11.4
• npm version: 6.4.1
• Angular version: 6.1.8
• Angular CLI version: 6.2.3
• OS: Windows 10 x64
• (rxjs: 6.2.2)
• (typescript: 2.9.2)

Repro steps

Using Angular with Angular Fire, Angular Flex, ngxs, firebase, rxjs.
Ran command:
ng update @angular/cli @angular/core

The log given by the failure

Only got this one line, nothing else:
Cannot read property 'split' of null

Desired functionality

A working update would be the best, at least some more details on why Angular couldn't be updated would be nice.

Mention any other details that might be useful

[wduville]

I solved this issue by temporarily removing one package under "dependencies" of package.json.

For my specific case, it was "angular-instantsearch": "^2.0.4" to be removed then reinstalled after the ng update.

[mwawrusch]

I can confirm that wduville's fix worked for me as well

[RudiPersson]

Wduville's fix worked for me too.

[tkrugg]

AFAICT, the error OP is seeing comes from this line of semver. Range constructor from semver is not designed to support range = null.
Ran as part of ng update, this line here transforms an invalid range into null which will fail down the line.

[hassanjuniedi]

same error with me, and I cant tell what the problem . any idea ?

[alan-agius4]

Hi, can someone please share your package.json togather with the exact command that you are using to update?

Thanks.

[rhefner]

@alan-agius4 I just ran into this problem today, here's the command I'm running:

npx ng update @angular/cli @angular/core

When running the ng update command above, all I get for output is:

# npx ng update @angular/cli @angular/core
Cannot read property 'split' of null

Removing dev deps still has the issue, removing everything but Angular packages from dependencies lets the installer proceed, but still fails with:

# npx ng update @angular/cli @angular/core
                  Package "@angular/http" has a missing peer dependency of "rxjs" @ "^6.0.0".
                  Package "@angular/core" has a missing peer dependency of "rxjs" @ "^6.0.0".
                  Package "@angular/common" has a missing peer dependency of "rxjs" @ "^6.0.0".
                  Package "@angular/forms" has a missing peer dependency of "rxjs" @ "^6.0.0".
                  Package "@angular/router" has a missing peer dependency of "rxjs" @ "^6.0.0".
                  Package "@angular/compiler-cli" has a missing peer dependency of "typescript" @ ">=3.1.1 <3.2".
Incompatible peer dependencies found. See above.

Here is my package.json (minus some things which I don't think would matter):

  "dependencies": {
    "@3846masa/axios-cookiejar-support": "^0.3.5",
    "@angular-devkit/build-angular": "^0.7.4",
    "@angular/animations": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/cdk": "^6.4.6",
    "@angular/cli": "^6.1.4",
    "@angular/common": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/compiler": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/compiler-cli": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/core": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/flex-layout": "^6.0.0-beta.15",
    "@angular/forms": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/http": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/language-service": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "^6.1.3",
    "@angular/router": "^6.1.3",
    "@ngx-progressbar/core": "^5.0.1",
    "@ngx-progressbar/http": "^5.0.1",
    "@ngx-progressbar/router": "^5.1.2",
    "@ngxs/router-plugin": "^3.2.0",
    "@ngxs/store": "^3.2.0",
    "@okta/okta-auth-js": "^1.17.0",
    "@swimlane/ngx-charts": "^9.0.0",
    "ag-grid": "^18.1.2",
    "ag-grid-angular": "^18.1.0",
    "angular2-virtual-scroll": "^0.4.7",
    "archiver": "^2.1.1",
    "async-retry": "^1.2.1",
    "awesome-debounce-promise": "^1.0.0",
    "axios": "^0.18.0",
    "babyparse": "^0.4.6",
    "bluebird": "^3.5.1",
    "body-parser": "^1.18.3",
    "chalk": "^2.4.1",
    "compression": "^1.7.3",
    "compromise": "^11.12.0",
    "confluence-api": "^1.3.0",
    "cookie-parser": "^1.4.3",
    "core-js": "^2.5.5",
    "decko": "^1.2.0",
    "emailjs": "^2.2.0",
    "express": "^4.16.3",
    "express-redis-cache": "^1.1.3",
    "express-validator": "^5.3.0",
    "font-awesome": "^4.7.0",
    "fuse.js": "^3.2.0",
    "gitlab": "^4.0.1",
    "hammerjs": "^2.0.8",
    "highlight.js": "^9.12.0",
    "history": "^4.7.2",
    "invert-color": "^1.2.3",
    "jenkins": "^0.22.1",
    "jimp": "^0.5.4",
    "jira-connector": "^2.8.0",
    "jquery": "^3.3.1",
    "jsnlog": "^2.28.0",
    "jsonwebtoken": "^8.2.1",
    "knex": "^0.15.2",
    "ldapjs": "^1.0.2",
    "loaders.css": "^0.1.2",
    "lodash": "^4.17.10",
    "lodash-inflection": "^1.5.0",
    "magic-query": "^1.1.1",
    "moment": "^2.22.1",
    "moment-duration-format": "^2.2.2",
    "moment-timezone": "^0.5.21",
    "mongoose": "^5.2.7",
    "morgan": "^1.9.0",
    "mysql": "^2.16.0",
    "ng-sidebar": "^8.0.0",
    "ng-snotify": "^4.3.1",
    "ng2-semantic-ui": "^0.10.0-alpha.6",
    "ngx-clipboard": "^11.1.3",
    "ngx-contextmenu": "^5.0.2",
    "ngx-pagination": "^3.2.0",
    "ngx-pipes": "^2.3.5",
    "ngx-quill": "^4.0.0",
    "ngx-webstorage": "^3.0.0-beta.10",
    "node-ssh": "^5.1.2",
    "number-to-words": "^1.2.4",
    "numeral": "^2.0.6",
    "object-hash": "^1.3.0",
    "object-sizeof": "^1.2.0",
    "paginator": "^1.0.0",
    "passport": "^0.4.0",
    "passport-ldapauth": "^2.0.0",
    "per-env": "^1.0.2",
    "pg": "^7.4.3",
    "pluralize": "^7.0.0",
    "popper.js": "^1.14.4",
    "prettyjson": "^1.2.1",
    "prettysize": "^1.1.0",
    "querystring": "^0.2.0",
    "quill": "^1.3.6",
    "randomcolor": "^0.5.3",
    "request-promise": "^4.2.2",
    "rxjs": "^6.2.1",
    "sass-extract": "^2.1.0",
    "sass-extract-loader": "^1.1.0",
    "semantic-ui-forest-themes": "^1.0.3",
    "semantic-ui-sass": "^2.3.1",
    "socket.io": "^2.1.1",
    "socket.io-client": "^2.1.1",
    "socket.io-redis": "^5.2.0",
    "sql-formatter": "^2.3.1",
    "striptags": "^3.1.1",
    "testrail-api": "^1.3.4",
    "tippy.js": "^2.5.4",
    "tough-cookie-file-store": "^1.2.0",
    "ts-node": "^7.0.0",
    "typescript": "^2.9.2",
    "urijs": "^1.19.1",
    "util.promisify": "^1.0.0",
    "web-animations-js": "^2.3.1",
    "winston": "^2.4.2",
    "x-ray": "^2.3.3",
    "xml2js": "^0.4.19",
    "xterm": "^3.5.1",
    "yargs": "^12.0.1",
    "zone.js": "^0.8.26"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@angularclass/hmr": "^2.1.3",
    "@ngxs/devtools-plugin": "^3.2.0",
    "@ngxs/logger-plugin": "^3.2.0",
    "@types/async": "^2.0.49",
    "@types/async-retry": "^1.2.1",
    "@types/bluebird": "^3.5.23",
    "@types/express": "^4.16.0",
    "@types/highlight.js": "^9.12.3",
    "@types/history": "^4.7.0",
    "@types/jasmine": "^2.8.8",
    "@types/jasminewd2": "^2.0.3",
    "@types/jenkins": "^0.20.1",
    "@types/knex": "^0.14.21",
    "@types/lodash": "^4.14.116",
    "@types/lodash.mixin": "^4.3.4",
    "@types/moment-duration-format": "^2.2.2",
    "@types/moment-timezone": "^0.5.8",
    "@types/mongoose": "^5.2.6",
    "@types/morgan": "^1.7.35",
    "@types/node": "^10.7.1",
    "@types/object-hash": "^1.2.0",
    "@types/pluralize": "0.0.29",
    "@types/prettyjson": "0.0.28",
    "@types/redis": "^2.8.6",
    "@types/request-promise": "^4.1.42",
    "@types/shelljs": "^0.8.0",
    "@types/socket.io": "^1.4.37",
    "@types/socket.io-client": "^1.4.32",
    "@types/socket.io-redis": "^1.0.25",
    "@types/webpack": "^4.4.9",
    "@types/xml2js": "^0.4.3",
    "awesome-typescript-loader": "^5.2.0",
    "codelyzer": "^4.4.3",
    "copy-webpack-plugin": "^4.5.2",
    "gulp-cli": "^2.0.1",
    "jasmine-core": "^3.2.0",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "^4.2.1",
    "karma": "^3.0.0",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "^2.2.0",
    "karma-cli": "~1.0.1",
    "karma-coverage-istanbul-reporter": "^2.0.1",
    "karma-jasmine": "^1.1.2",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "^1.2.0",
    "node-memwatch": "^1.0.1",
    "nodemon-webpack-plugin": "^3.0.1",
    "npm-run-all": "^4.1.3",
    "protractor": "^5.4.0",
    "rendertron": "^2.0.1",
    "rimraf": "^2.6.2",
    "shelljs": "^0.8.2",
    "source-map-support": "^0.5.9",
    "tsconfig-paths": "^3.5.0",
    "tslint": "^5.11.0",
    "wait-on": "^2.1.0",
    "webpack-cli": "^3.0.6",
    "webpack-node-externals": "^1.7.2"
  },
  "browser": {
    "fs": false,
    "os": false,
    "path": false
  }

[alan-agius4]

Hi, is this still reproducible with the latest versions of the CLI? I am unable to replicate this, with the above package.json.

[rhefner]

I haven't ran into it again.

[tkrugg]

People experience this issue when some of the libraries they are using have a malformed peerDependency semver syntax. If they update the latter libraries to a newer version that fixes it, the angular updater will not fail.

The PR #12806 makes the ng updated more robust to this issue.

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