Tracking install progress with ndjson reporter

[zardoy]

• (probably later) I'd be willing to implement this feature (contributing guide)

Describe the user story

Required for integration with third-party tools. For example yarn support --json flag for installation command:

{"type":"info","data":"No lockfile found."}
{"type":"step","data":{"message":"Resolving packages","current":1,"total":4}}
{"type":"activityStart","data":{"id":0}}
{"type":"activityTick","data":{"id":0,"name":"@actions/core@^1.6.0"}}

The main purpose for my tool is to know the progress of specifc action (installation / removing etc)

Describe the solution you'd like

Implement --json flag for every command.

Describe the drawbacks of your solution

Probably maintainability.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No alternatives or workarounds.

[zardoy]

Related #2705

[zkochan]

What would you use it for?

Some commands already support --json. And some work with --reporter ndjson.

[zardoy]

Sorry for delayed response!

What would you use it for?

I just want to build some kind of extension that would automatically run pnpm i whenever you change package.json in editor or open just cloned project.
The main thing that I want to implement is showing approximate progress of the process. As I can see it is currently not possible with the ndjson reporter.

Some commands already support --json. And some work with --reporter ndjson.

Indeed, my feature request was too wide. I actually wanted to request something similar to #139.

[zkochan]

You can create a custom reporter that will consume the ndjson output.

[zardoy]

However, can ndjson reporter report the progress (of the installation for example)? Here is the Yarn v1 reporter for example:

{"type":"progressStart","data":{"id":0,"total":109}}
{"type":"progressTick","data":{"id":0,"current":1}}
...
{"type":"progressTick","data":{"id":0,"current":109}}
{"type":"progressFinish","data":{"id":0}}

With these data given, I can easily display the progress bar. In case of pnpm, it outputs pnpm:progress event only with the package being fetched / found_in_store. I just realized that I can compare the number of processed packages with the requested one. I think this would be enough for me.

[zkochan]

No, pnpm doesn't know the percentage because unlike Yarn, which has separate installation stages, pnpm does all stages at the same time (that is why it is so fast). So pnpm does not know how many packages it will download
pnpm:

Yarn:

[zardoy]

Thank you for quick reposnse! I will update the title and body for visibility.