peerDependency for a link:* dependency does not get resolved

[Kirshach]

While developing project B with a locally built dependency A that has a peerDependency: some-external-module , I discovered that linking module A to B and installing some-external-module in A does not result in successful resolution of some-external-module dependency in pnpm.

pnpm version:

7.13.1

Code to reproduce the issue:

1. Create local module A with a peerDependency: some-external-module
2. Create local module B with dependency A
3. In module B install dependency A using its relative path, i.e. pnpm add ../module-A
4. In module B install dependency some-external-module
5. Run project B

Expected behavior:

The project starts up succesfully

Actual behavior:

An error is thrown:
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'some-external-module'

Additional information:

MacOS Monterey 12.4
node v18.8.0

[Shinyaigeek]

I tried to reproduce in this repository this but I could not...

• sub package has is-even external package as peerDependencies
• main package has sub internal package as dependencies, and is-even external package as dependencies
• run node main/main.js and correctly worked

Could you share the reproduction? (or please point it out if something wrong)

[Kirshach]

Hm, the only difference is I was doing pnpm add ../sub, so, using a symlink. Is this a wrong way of doing it? 🤔

[shahyar]

I tried to reproduce in this repository this but I could not...

You were unable to reproduce because you're using a pnpm workspace. This means the libs are all installed in /node_modules/.

This is indeed bugged without a workspace. You'd think it would make a symlink as /main/node_modules/sub -> ../../sub/ so that when the code from /sub/ runs, it is able to find peer deps inside of /main/node_modules/ (because CWD is /main/). Unfortunately, as is, /sub tries to find peer deps from /sub/node_modules/, which would be empty in this case.

[rafaelliu]

I believe thats the same issue as #4842. Got a bit cryptic response there and don’t understand the underlying blocker.

NPM does it with a flag and I’m pretty sure the latest version even enables the flag by default (see linked issue).

Would be nice to have. Huge pain on monorepos

[RealAlphabet]

I have the exact same problem for a very simple project.

PS: I don't know if it's related but NPM has changed from link: to file:.

If I change link: to file: in the package.json after doing pnpm add ../mymodule then it works!
I think PNPM should really use file: by default.