postinstall script ansi color doesn't work

[tjx666]

pnpm version: 7.27.1

Code to reproduce the issue: https://github.com/tjx666/pnpm-postinstll-script-ansi-issue

Expected behavior:

after pnpm install:

Actual behavior:

Additional information:

System:
    OS: macOS 13.2.1
    CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8257U CPU @ 1.40GHz
    Memory: 270.04 MB / 16.00 GB
    Shell: 5.8.1 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 18.14.1 - ~/Library/Caches/fnm_multishells/9738_1677093635011/bin/node
    npm: 9.5.0 - ~/Library/Caches/fnm_multishells/9738_1677093635011/bin/npm

[zkochan]

We currently collapse the output of postinstall scripts. Colours only work if stdio inherit is used, when executing the child process for postinstall. So in order to do it we'd have to change how we print the output of the scripts.

[tjx666]

@zkochan So, why not

[ai]

It will be very helpful for pnpm run /^test:/ use case. In that case user see the output of the scripts more often.

[ai]

@zkochan if you have a plan how to do it, I can send a developer do implement it.

[zkochan]

We have pushed a fix for this recently. Did that not solve the issue?

Related PR: #4559
Related issue: #2148

[ai]

Most of colors libraries (chalk, picoolors, colorette, kleur) don’t detect color support in collapsed mode because require('tty').istty(1) returns false.

If I do console.log('\x1b[32msimple\x1b[39m') without color support detection it will work great.

[zkochan]

You can force colours.

#2148 (comment)

[ai]

You can force colours

Yes, it’s fine for short-term solution.

What do you think of running scripts with node-pty as a long-term solution? I can ask somebody to send PR if you think it is safe enouph (at least nx and other big companies use it).

[zkochan]

nx uses it for the same purpose?

[ai]

Oops, it was NxShell, not nx. But they have a solid list of users (mostly terminals like Terminal panel in VS Code).

[zkochan]

I see that it has some built dependencies

# Install dependencies and build C++
npm install

This is problematic. We have many installation methods and currently they are simple because don't need a build step. But this new dependency would break a lot of things.

I don't think we can use it.

[ai]

OK, colorless output is not big deal. Let’s wait for some solution in the future.