Build npm docs

[hinell]

• Version: v13.2.0
• Platform: Windows 10 x64
• Subsystem:

Issue

Running npm help install throws an error:

Windows cannot find
'E:\Programs\NodeJS\node_modules\npm\docs\public\cli-commands\npm-install\index.html'. 

The error is caused by non-existing public/ folder in default NodeJS path installation: NodeJS/node_modules/npm/docs/public , which contains local npm documentation.

Addressing

1. cd to deps/npm/docs folder
2. build documentation by using default npm scripts

Workaround

$ npm i -g npm

Background

• NPM documentation was recently updated by v6.13.0 version to use Gatsby framework, which requires users to generate static documentation from * .md files before it can be consumed
• Newly updated npm was incorporated into NodeJS by v13.2.0 (deps: update npm to 6.13.0 #30271) version

Misc

CC @ruyadorno

Why not to convert the deps/npm to a git submodule?

[ruyadorno]

I know #30533 landed last week on master with a bunch of npm docs fixes - the fact that npm i -g npm is a workaround leads me to think that the issue has probably been solved but I don't have a windows setup in hand to confirm that right now

[hinell]

Well when you run npm i -g npm it gets its documentation from the global C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\docs\public folder.
The latter is located outside of the default NodeJS/ installation path on the Windows systems that is `Program Files\NodeJS.

If you run npm un -g npm the problem will return back.

In other words running $ [...]/NodeJS/npm help <...> will always throw error.

[ruyadorno]

hi @hinell thanks for digging into this 😊 something that would be amazing to confirm if the problem has been solved already is to compile the latest node from current master and see if it still has the same error on $ [...]/NodeJS/npm help <...> from v13.2.0 when executing the compiled version from current master containing all the fixes that landed in #30533

[hinell]

@ruyadorno Well as long as there there is no pre-generated deps/npm/docs/public/ folder, the problem ain't gonna disappear. 🤔
By far, neither of revisions contain it, even the most fresh one - master:

• deps: upgrade npm to 6.13.1 #30533 - https://github.com/nodejs/node/tree/a7c7c703aff362f06ef5d49451a0f79fd289910f/deps/npm/docs
• Latest master (on date) - https://github.com/nodejs/node/tree/cc3f2b386c6ee34f5574c69c29647165a9bc3aef/deps/npm/docs

[richardlau]

It's a bug in npm's Makefile -- the release target depends on doc but this was replaced by docs by npm/cli#274:

node/deps/npm/Makefile

Line 132 in cc3f2b3

release: gitclean ls-ok markedclean marked-manclean docs-clean doc

This meant that anyone following the Maintaining npm in Node.js guide would run make release but this would not build the docs.

I've submitted npm/cli#546.

cc @nodejs/npm

[hinell]

@richardlau Well yeah. That's must be the root of the problem. I wonder how they did release docs without using make now...

anyone following the [...] guide

Didn't know these guides exist. They aren't linked from CONTRIBUTING.md.
This is probably subject for another issue. 😉

[ruyadorno]

thank you so much @hinell for finding this out and @richardlau for promptly submitting a fix, the timing is great since we have a release scheduled for today, I'll make sure to follow up there 👍

[richardlau]

All supported Node.js release lines now include npm 6.13.4 so this should be fixed (the fix went into npm 6.13.2).