[DOCS] npm init doesn't use @latest package version if already installed globally

[slorber]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

Run npm init docusaurus -- -V

publish 0.0.6

Run again:

---

I have no idea why it says:

Need to install the following packages:
  create-docusaurus
Ok to proceed? (y)

It even shows a download progress bar, and then the version stays at 0.0.5, despite 0.0.6 being published.

Expected Behavior

After 0.0.6 publish, it should use that newly published version instead of the already installed one.

This is also the behavior of yarn create docusaurus -V

Steps To Reproduce

See above

Environment

• OS: MacOS
• Node: 16.10
• npm: 7.24.0

Could also reproduce on npm 6 / Node 12

[slorber]

This has already been discussed here: #2395

cc @wraithgar wondering if there's an RFC or if this change is planned?

This is quite annoying because it forces to add npm init docusaurus@latest everywhere in our docs, leading to a more cryptic init command, harder to remember for our userbase that is not necessarily node devs.

[wraithgar]

This would be a great thing to bring up at the RFC meeting. I know it would likely also benefit for instance the create-react-app folks as they are currently also working on ways to dissuade people from installing it globally (which is what triggers this behavior). Feel free to open up an RRFC https://github.com/npm/rfcs.

[slorber]

Hey @wraithgar , I'm not very familiar with this process, what is a "RRFC" compared to a regular RFC md doc?

Are those more casual RFCs opened as issues?

[slorber]

Note: some projects handle this problem by not including init templates inside the create-x package, but rather download the unversioned project templates from a repo's main branch or HTTP URL.

One example is https://github.com/remotion-dev/remotion/blob/main/packages/create-video/src/init.ts

[wraithgar]

Hey @wraithgar , I'm not very familiar with this process, what is a "RRFC" compared to a regular RFC md doc?

Are those more casual RFCs opened as issues?

Exactly, it's basically the opening of a discussion to see if we even want an rfc or if the general consensus is to fix it as a bug. It's one of those formalities we like to adhere to so that decisions like this aren't made without giving the community a chance to give input.

It also helps leave a record of the decision, which is very helpful.

[slorber]

Hey, wondering if something changed in recent versions of Node? (on 16.14.2)

It seems to ask me much more often to confirm when trying to execute the same package twice

It wasn't the case before, we run this command in postinstall for a while now

[lukekarrys]

I'm not sure if anything has changed in node, but if you can open a new issue I can investigate.

[slorber]

reported here: #4619

[benmccann]

This is quite annoying because it forces to add npm init docusaurus@latest everywhere in our docs, leading to a more cryptic init command, harder to remember for our userbase that is not necessarily node devs.

This behavior is extremely frustrating as a package maintainer. We've had to do the same, which you can see on the homepage of https://svelte.dev/ and many other places in our docs.

I understand that this limitation has now been documented, but can we consider improving the behavior here?

I'm also not sure what it means for a create package to be installed globally. I can't imagine that I ever ran npm install -g create-svelte. I assume it just means that I ran npm create svelte and it installed it globally on my behalf