pnpm link should not change package.json

[farfromrefug]

Right now whenever you use pnpm link to link a local or global package (like for dev testing packages) the version of the package is changed in the package.json from like 3.2.1 to ^3.2.1.
I see that as quite a big issue because it breaks the forkflow of forced specified version of packages.

Is there any reason for this? Could we stop that behavior?

[zkochan]

No, I don't think there is a reason for it. Looks like a bug.

[BlackHole1]

I have no local recurrence. my pnpm version: pnpm@7.0.0-alpha.3

Can you provide a demo and steps to recurrence it?

cc: @farfromrefug

[farfromrefug]

have 2 different folders
one is the module the other uses the module (without ^)
inside the module do pnpm link --global
inside the other one do pnpm link --global my-module
then the dependency in the package.json gets changed with a ^
i havent tried with 7.0

[BlackHole1]

my-module

package.json:

{
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

my-project

package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
  }
}

shell

$ cd my-module
$ pnpm link --global

$ cd my-project
$ pnpm link --global my-module

$ cat my-project/package.json
{
  "dependencies": {
    "my-module": "^1.0.0"
  }
}

Are you wanting to get the following?

$ cat my-project/package.json
{
  "dependencies": {
    "my-module": "1.0.0"
  }
}

[farfromrefug]

@BlackHole1 well if the module is not yet in the dependencies i dont care. But if i have

"dependencies": {
    "my-module": "1.0.0"
  }

I expect it NOT to change to

"dependencies": {
    "my-module": "^1.0.0"
  }

once i run pnpm link --global my-module
is that clear enough?

[BlackHole1]

okey

[joe-gre]

What is the status of this? Could the linked PR be looked at?

[mikeandtherest]

@zkochan @BlackHole1 I would appreciate if we could get an update on this defect. We're currently in the process of migrating an enterprise-scale project from npm to pnpm, but this change that pnpm link --global <pkg> does on the package.json file could be a showstopper for us. Thanks!

[zkochan]

I have checked how this works with npm. Looks like the link command never changes the package.json file in this case. So I assume the fix is really easy, we just don't have to write the package.json file.

[mikeandtherest]

Thank you for moving forward with the fix @zkochan! I can confirm that it works fine on our end with v8.5.0.