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wraithgar merged 3 commits into from
May 1, 2024
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docs: clarify what peerDependenciesMeta does #7433

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e88059c
clarify npm warning only occurs on version 3-6
xuhdev Apr 27, 2024
add243e
Clarify language in peerDependency
xuhdev May 1, 2024
91cfb90
fixup: Update docs/lib/content/configuring-npm/package-json.md
wraithgar May 1, 2024
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14 changes: 5 additions & 9 deletions docs/lib/content/configuring-npm/package-json.md
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Expand Up @@ -818,11 +818,12 @@ to express this. If you depend on features introduced in 1.5.2, use

### peerDependenciesMeta

When a user installs your package, npm will emit warnings if packages
specified in `peerDependencies` are not already installed. The
`peerDependenciesMeta` field serves to provide npm more information on how
The `peerDependenciesMeta` field serves to provide npm more information on how
your peer dependencies are to be used. Specifically, it allows peer
dependencies to be marked as optional.
dependencies to be marked as optional. Npm would not automatically install
optional peer dependencies. This allows you to
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@wraithgar wraithgar May 1, 2024

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Npm would not automatically install optional peer dependencies.

This is a very confusing and potentially misleading sentence. At a glance it reads that npm does not install optional peer dependencies. In fact it does, it just does not raise an error if they can not be installed.

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@xuhdev xuhdev May 1, 2024 •
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I tried this myself, npm seems to not install optional peer dependencies by default. I"m on npm version 10.7.0.

  1. mkdir my-package && cd my-package
  2. Save the following file to package.json:
{
  "name": "tea-latte",
  "version": "1.3.5",
  "peerDependencies": {
    "lodash": "4.17.21",
    "core-js": "3.37.0"
  },
  "peerDependenciesMeta": {
    "lodash": {
      "optional": true
    }
  }
}
  1. npm install.

Observe that node_module doesn't contain lodash, but it contains core-js.

Then:

  1. npm pack (which generates tea-latte-1.3.5.tgz)
  2. mkdir ../user && cd ../user
  3. npm install ../my-package/tea-latte-1.3.5.tgz

Same effect, only core-js is installed, not lodash.

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@wraithgar wraithgar May 1, 2024 •
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Well then my memory of the situation was wrong. I must have gotten optional and optional peer dependencies confused. Thanks.

integrate and interact with a variety of host packages without requiring
all of them to be installed.

For example:

Expand All @@ -842,11 +843,6 @@ For example:
}
```

Marking a peer dependency as optional ensures npm will not emit a warning
if the `soy-milk` package is not installed on the host. This allows you to
integrate and interact with a variety of host packages without requiring
all of them to be installed.

### bundleDependencies

This defines an array of package names that will be bundled when publishing
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