[BUG] npm publish <package-spec> in a workspace is not taking package-spec into account

[Badisi]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

Considering the following mono-repo workspace:

my-project
├── dist
│   └── a
│       └── src
│       │    ├── file.d.ts
│       │    └── file.js
│       └── package.json # { "name: "a", "version": "1.0.0" }
├── projects
│   └── a
│       └── src
│       │    └── file.ts
│       └── package.json # { "name: "a", "version": "1.0.0" }
└── package.json # { "name: "my-project", "workspaces": [ "projects/a" ] }

When releasing a new project the idea is to:

1. Set the working-directory to the desired project (ex: cd projects/a)
2. Build the project into the root dist folder (ex: npm run build)
3. Publish the project (ex: npm run release which runs npm publish ../../dist/a --access=public)

Issue

When specifying workspaces in the root package.json, the step 3 does not work as expected.

It ignores the <package-spec> parameter completely and publish the files in the current directory instead:

$ npm run release

> a@1.0.0 publish
> npm publish ../../dist/a --dry-run

npm notice
npm notice 📦  a@1.0.0
npm notice Tarball Contents
npm notice 172B package.json
npm notice 0B src/file.ts
npm notice Tarball Details
npm notice name: a
npm notice version: 1.0.0
npm notice filename: a-1.0.0.tgz
...

The <package-spec> parameter has no effect at all. Even a wrong path will not display an error and publish the current directory instead (ex: npm publish ./unknown-dir --dry-run).

Note

The pack command on the contrary is working as expected and ignores the workspace:

$ npm pack ../../dist/a --dry-run

npm warn Ignoring workspaces for specified package(s)
npm notice
npm notice 📦  a@1.0.0
npm notice Tarball Contents
npm notice 44B package.json
npm notice 0B src/file.d.ts
npm notice 0B src/file.js
npm notice Tarball Details
npm notice name: a
npm notice version: 1.0.0
npm notice filename: a-1.0.0.tgz
...

Related

I had opened this issue, 2 years ago, that sounded similar at first, because npm publish <package-spec> was also not working as expected. But after looking at it again, it is the exact same problem, because I'm using cwd to navigate to a project and run the publish from there.

Expected Behavior

I would expect the command npm publish <package-spec> to publish what's located at the given path argument and not what's in the current directory.

Steps To Reproduce

1. git clone https://github.com/Badisi/issue-npm-publish-with-workspaces-2
2. npm install
3. cd projects/a
4. npm run release

Environment

• platform: macOS Monterey 12.7.5
• node: v20.15.1
• npm: 10.8.2

[milaninfy]

I believe this is the same cause/behaviour as mentioned in #5745