npm ERR! Cannot set properties of null (setting 'dev')

[maksimr]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

npm install does not work if try to install one workspace to another

STR:

• mkdir foo && cd ./foo
• npm init -y
• npm init -y -w ./pkg-a
• npm init -y -w ./pkg-b
• npm install ./pkg-a -w pkg-b

AR: npm ERR! Cannot set properties of null (setting 'dev')
ER: Behaviour similar to cd ./pkg-b && npm install ../pkg-a

Expected Behavior

No response

Steps To Reproduce

No response

Environment

• npm: 8.1.0
• Node: v16.13.0
• OS: macOS 12.0.1
• platform: Darwin arm64

60 verbose stack TypeError: Cannot set properties of null (setting 'dev')
60 verbose stack     at calcDepFlagsStep (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/calc-dep-flags.js:34:21)
60 verbose stack     at visit (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/calc-dep-flags.js:12:20)
60 verbose stack     at visitNode (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/treeverse/lib/depth-descent.js:57:25)
60 verbose stack     at next (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/treeverse/lib/depth-descent.js:44:19)
60 verbose stack     at depth (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/treeverse/lib/depth-descent.js:82:10)
60 verbose stack     at depth (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/treeverse/lib/depth.js:27:12)
60 verbose stack     at calcDepFlags (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/calc-dep-flags.js:10:15)
60 verbose stack     at Arborist.[copyIdealToActual] (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:1400:7)
60 verbose stack     at Arborist.reify (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:153:35)
60 verbose stack     at async Install.install (/Users/maksim/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.0/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/install.js:170:5)
61 verbose cwd /private/tmp/foo

[thomazmz]

Same problem here. Using Node v17.3.0 and NPM v8.3.0

[nperez0111]

I was able to get around this by doing a npm ci

[gufeng0]

I have the same problem.

[chriskinsman]

Same issue but with slightly different repro.

Odd thing is in our monorepo some workspaces are working fine. Others yield this error.

npm@8.1.2 or npm@8.3.2
node@16.13.1

[nlf]

instead of npm install ./pkg-a -w ./pkg-b try npm install pkg-a -w pkg-b

using a ./ as the lead of the package to install (i.e. ./pkg-a) causes npm to see it as a file: dependency rather than a symlink, which is why you're seeing strange behavior here. removing the leading ./ will add it as a regular dependency and will correctly resolve to the symlink.

this is a thing we should probably smooth over for users, though, as that's pretty confusing.

[nlf]

i'm going to close this as a duplicate of #3847 and move the conversation there

[solsson]

I think that this issue and #3847 should be de-duplicated. #3847 might have been fixed in #5350 but the error message is slightly different. Should this issue be reopened, as it represents Cannot set properties of null (setting 'dev')?

[wcardosodev]

I'm also getting this error when trying to run npm link ../myapp/node_modules/react from my library to my app, tried using both node @16.13.1 and @18.15.0

[sid2364]

Something else that helped me resolve this issue was just that the npm ci command was running (via Jenkins, in my case) from the wrong directory, and couldn't find the package-lock.json file. It was just a matter of running it from the right directory - since npm ci couldn't find the lock file.