fix: crashes when yarn 2 and above is used with the --ignore-engines flag

[foxnewsnetwork]

Background

If you've ever run

yarn run patch-package my-just-patched-in-package

sometimes you'll notice you get these errors

/home/defaultuser/workspace/workspaces/xxx/node_modules/patch-package/dist/makePatch.js:224
        throw e;
        ^
{
  status: 1,
  signal: null,
  output: [
    null,
    Buffer(192) [Uint8Array] [
       27,  91,  51,  49, 109,  27,  91,  49, 109,  85, 110, 107,
      110, 111, 119, 110,  32,  83, 121, 110, 116,  97, 120,  32,
       69, 114, 114, 111, 114,  27,  91,  50,  50, 109,  27,  91,
       51,  57, 109,  58,  32,  85, 110, 115, 117, 112, 112, 111,
      114, 116, 101, 100,  32, 111, 112, 116, 105, 111, 110,  32,
      110,  97, 109, 101,  32,  40,  34,  45,  45, 105, 103, 110,
      111, 114, 101,  45, 115,  99, 114, 105, 112, 116, 115,  34,
       41,  46,  10,  10,  36,  32, 121,  97, 114, 110,  32, 105,
      110, 115, 116,  97,
      ... 92 more items
    ],
    Buffer(0) [Uint8Array] []
  ],
  pid: 103915,
  stdout: Buffer(192) [Uint8Array] [
     27,  91,  51,  49, 109,  27,  91,  49, 109,  85, 110, 107,
    110, 111, 119, 110,  32,  83, 121, 110, 116,  97, 120,  32,
     69, 114, 114, 111, 114,  27,  91,  50,  50, 109,  27,  91,
     51,  57, 109,  58,  32,  85, 110, 115, 117, 112, 112, 111,
    114, 116, 101, 100,  32, 111, 112, 116, 105, 111, 110,  32,
    110,  97, 109, 101,  32,  40,  34,  45,  45, 105, 103, 110,
    111, 114, 101,  45, 115,  99, 114, 105, 112, 116, 115,  34,
     41,  46,  10,  10,  36,  32, 121,  97, 114, 110,  32, 105,
    110, 115, 116,  97,
    ... 92 more items
  ],
  stderr: Buffer(0) [Uint8Array] [],
  error: null
}

by adding a utf-8 encoding command at

patch-package/src/makePatch.ts

Lines 211 to 214 in be4dfd7

	spawnSafeSync(`yarn`, ["install", "--ignore-engines"], {
	cwd: tmpRepoNpmRoot,
	logStdErrOnError: false,
	})

        spawnSafeSync(`yarn`, ["install", "--ignore-engines"], {
          cwd: tmpRepoNpmRoot,
          logStdErrOnError: false,
          encoding: 'utf-8'
        })

and logging out the results, we see that the error is actually

====== why is yarn failling? {
  status: 1,
  signal: null,
  output: [
    null,
    "➤ YN0050: The --ignore-engines option is deprecated; engine checking isn't a core feature anymore\n",
    "! The local project doesn't define a 'packageManager' field. Corepack will now add one referencing yarn@3.5.0+sha512.2dc70be5fce9f66756d25b00a888f3ca66f86b502b76750e72ba54cec89da767b938c54124595e26f868825688e0fe3552c26c76a330673343057acadd5cfcf2.\n" +
      '! For more details about this field, consult the documentation at https://nodejs.org/api/packages.html#packagemanager\n' +
      '\n'
  ],
  pid: 104391,
  stdout: "➤ YN0050: The --ignore-engines option is deprecated; engine checking isn't a core feature anymore\n",
  stderr: "! The local project doesn't define a 'packageManager' field. Corepack will now add one referencing yarn@3.5.0+sha512.2dc70be5fce9f66756d25b00a888f3ca66f86b502b76750e72ba54cec89da767b938c54124595e26f868825688e0fe3552c26c76a330673343057acadd5cfcf2.\n" +
    '! For more details about this field, consult the documentation at https://nodejs.org/api/packages.html#packagemanager\n' +
    '\n',
  error: null
}

Root Cause

It seems this happens because --ignore-engines is killed, but sometimes projects use yarn v2 and above (always a mistake, but it can't be helped) and so yarn just crashes (thanks Yehuda)

What can we do about it

In an independent effort in #506 , there is effort (dated to 2023 though) to get yarn v2 and above working (that is, so that we can drop the --ignore-engines )

However, because yarn v2 and above already supports their own variant of patching via yarn patch, it seems unlikely there will much demand to actually drive #506 through to completion

Anyway, in the meantime, the easiest thing to do is just to force yarn to be on v1

Code Changes

• force yarn to be on v1 with a packageManager directive
• switch over to using encoding: 'utf-8' in some spawn commands (to generate more helpful errors)