npm install failed on Raspberry Pi

[Kazuki-Nakanishi]

What are the steps to reproduce?

1. Launch a terminal on Raspberry Pi.
2. clone Node-RED repository from GitHub.
3. run npm install

What happens?

Installing chromedriver failed.

What do you expect to happen?

Avoid installing chromedriver (and other related packages) when running npm install on Raspberry Pi.

Please tell us about your environment:

• Node-RED version: 0.18.3
• node.js version:
• npm version:
• Platform/OS: Raspbian OS
• Browser:

[knolleary]

There is no simple way to make a development dependency optional. npm chose not to add that category of dependency to the package.json format.

One option is to add an npm script for the postinstall event. That script can then check the OS and attempt an npm install of the additional packages. But this can only be done if the script is able to check whether the npm install is trying to install the development dependencies. It must not do anything for a 'normal' npm install node-red.

The other option is a similar script that is not linked to any of the npm lifecycle events that the user is expected to run manually if they want to use the chromedriver tests. This may be the right first step to resolving this. If we can automate it further later, then that is good.

[Kazuki-Nakanishi]

@knolleary Thank you very much for your comment.

I wanted to have the dev version of optionalDependencies in package.json. This was already discussed here, and npm does not support it as of now.
npm/npm#3870

At this moment, I agree with the option that lets a user install chromedriver manually. I also need to update a design wiki.
I will send a PR for it soon.

[boneskull]

My opinion: don't worry about it. Users installing from a working copy on a platform that doesn't support the dev dependencies can simply npm install --production to avoid installing them.

[dceejay]

not really. If they install from git they need to build the project in order to get a working version... so they need the grunt tools.

[boneskull]

ah, you're right about that. solution: use npm to install node-red instead of cloning it. 😉

[boneskull]

so then, @Kazuki-Nakanishi Why do you need to clone the repo and install this way on your RPi? Why can't you use e.g. npm install -g node-red?

I agree running NR on an RPi is great and awesome, but I wouldn't really want a RPi as my dev environment.

[dceejay]

I don't think he does particularly... he is just responding to a problem I raised that IF someone did want to do this it currently breaks (and indeed same with other architectures re that other issue) - It's only for testing the UI side - so the bulk of the existing tests work fine without it.

[Kazuki-Nakanishi]

Hi @boneskull, Thank you for your comments.
The reason is as @dceejay explained. And one actual scenario would be that Node-RED contributors sometimes run npm install on Raspberry Pi to test their code.

[knolleary]

Closing as per the merged PR above.