yarn add fails when package.json doesn't exist yet

[Daniel15]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?
A bug, maybe?

What is the current behavior?
The behaviour of yarn add in a directory with no package.json has changed between 0.16.1 and master. I'm not sure whether it's intentional or not.

Behaviour with 0.16.1 is that it creates an empty package.json file:

21:25 daniel@vps03 /tmp/loltest
% yarn add react
yarn add v0.16.1
info No lockfile found.
[1/4] Resolving packages...
[2/4] Fetching packages...
[3/4] Linking dependencies...
[4/4] Building fresh packages...
success Saved lockfile.
success Saved 16 new dependencies.
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
├─ [email protected]
└─ [email protected]
Done in 3.27s.
21:25 daniel@vps03 /tmp/loltest
% cat package.json
{
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "^15.3.2"
  }
}

Behavior with the latest master build is that it fails:

% yarn add react
yarn add v0.17.0-0
info No lockfile found.
error Couldn't find a package.json file in "/tmp/loltest"
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/add for documentation about this command.

Please mention your node.js, yarn and operating system version.
Node v6.9.1
Debian Testing (Stretch)

[sebmck]

Created #1787 to fix this, pending approval.

[maraujop]

@kittens I've just upgraded to yarn 0.19.1 and I'm trying to install from a github repository without a package.json file and I still get Couldn't find manifest error.

Thanks

[mplatt]

Same here. For example:

yarn add github:github/testrepo
yarn add v0.19.1
info No lockfile found.
[1/4] 🔍  Resolving packages...
error Couldn't find manifest in "https://github.com/github/testrepo.git".
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/add for documentation about this command.

[route1rodent]

I am also having the same issue with Yarn 0.24.5
@kittens your merge seems that it didn't solve the problem, probably it would be worth to add a new
--ignore-manifest option to the yarn add CLI ?

[imsurinder90]

@metaunicorn your solution didn't worked for me.
I tried running:
yarn add https://github.com/dragosu/jquery-aciTree/tarball/master --ignore-manifest

it still given error:
Couldn't find a package.json file

Am i missing anything?

[route1rodent]

@imsurinder90 my suggestion to @kittens was to add a NEW option called --ignore-manifest to the CLI, but it doesn't exist yet :(

[bestander]

This should be fixed in master,
0.28 release

[Daniel15]

Running echo '{}' > package.json before yarn add should work too.

[imsurinder90]

@Daniel15 i tried but it displays the same error on terminal

[bestander]

@Daniel15, the problem is that package.json is missing from https://github.com/dragosu/jquery-aciTree/tarball/master not the project that adds it.

This PR (in yarn 0.27) added ability to refer git repos without package.json https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/pull/3701.
But I am not sure it will work for a tarball git dependency.

[imsurinder90]

@bestander Will it work if i fork this repo and add a package.json to it ?
and then run yarn add git+forkUrl
Also, i found the latest version of yarn(0.27) is yet not available at npm package repository.

Can someone tell when latest version of yarn will be available on npm pkg repo ?

[bestander]

Will it work if i fork this repo and add a package.json to it ?
and then run yarn add git+forkUrl

Yes

Also, i found the latest version of yarn(0.27) is yet not available at npm package repository.

thanks, we do it manually, I'll promote 0.27 to stable now

[imsurinder90]

Thanks

[imsurinder90]

Hi

I forked the repo and add a package.json file to it. it works:
yarn add git+https://github.com/imsurinder90/jquery-aciTree.git

but i need to download specific version, so i tried:
yarn add git+https://github.com/imsurinder90/jquery-aciTree.git#4.5.0-rc.7

this time it fails with error:
error Couldn't find manifest in git+https://github.com/imsurinder90/jquery-aciTree.git.

Do i suppose to add manifest file to it ? I can add to it as i have forked it.

Also in this thread @metaunicorn had suggested to add '--ignore-manifest' flag in yarn add CLI. Will it be available in the upcoming latest version ?

[bestander]

@imsurinder90 --ignore-manifest won't help you, this is not related to the feature you are looking for.

https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/pull/3624 - here was added capability to add git dependencies without package.json in [email protected].
But I think it is not working end to end yet.

As for yarn add git+https://github.com/imsurinder90/jquery-aciTree.git#4.5.0-rc.7, #4.5.0-rc.7 part is a tag and the commit with this tag still does not have a package.json. You'll probably want to clone the source at a specific tag and add package.json there and then refer a specific commit.
E.g. yarn add git+https://github.com/imsurinder90/jquery-aciTree.git#efd4c1fb62e0a9c74f8a559f2c2c3df89b02953f

[imsurinder90]

@bestander
Did you mean to clone from original repo with commit id and then add a package.json to it and push that all of code into my personal github account and then refer that repository.

It has nothing to do with forked repo?

[bestander]

Here is the workaround:

• create a branch from https://github.com/imsurinder90/jquery-aciTree.git#4.5.0-rc.7
• add package.json
• commit and push the new ranch
• do yarn add git+https://github.com/imsurinder90/jquery-aciTree.git#

[imsurinder90]

@bestander 👍
Thanks for the perfect solution :)

[clouds56]

Is it possible to have a flag control this? I often mistakenly run yarn in wrong folder and had to remove created yarn.lock package.json node_modules stuff manually.
Might some config like create_package_json_if_not_exists false in .yarnrc

That is to say I'd like to make yarn install/yarn add fails when no package.json found, just like other package manager do.
At least make yarn without any argument not creating empty yarn.lock and node_modules if package.json not present.