docs: document special meaning of registry.npmjs.com by everett1992 · Pull Request #3784 · npm/cli (original) (raw)

This behavior has been present in npm for a while, but I haven't found
where it's documented. This is my attempt at documenting the behavior
based on my understanding of it. I think a SME should contribute to this
so the documentation is correct.

npm/feedback#544
#3783
https://github.com/npm/arborist/blob/478871bf0a44a8ec516b9057585b8707e60b0349/lib/arborist/reify.js#L687-L693

I'd really like to discus improving this behavior. Packages should have more control over the resolved url, at-least packages using a custom registry should be able to record a resolved value in the lockfile that means 'the currently configured registry'. An easy and compatible option may be a configuration for the registry to record. npm would replace NPM_CONFIG_REGISTRY with NPM_CONFIG_REGISTRY_TO_RECORD when writing the lock. The comment in arborist suggests a plan to remove the special behavior of registry.npmjs.org which I support but I think it would require a new lock file format.