Yarn: Add a configuration option to set --network-concurrency flag

[tobico]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?
Feature

What is the current behavior?
Network concurrency can be specified on the command line thanks to https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/pull/2129, but if you forget to pass this option it will run with the default concurrency, and in our use-case we get blocked from GitHub SSH access for the next hour as a result.

What is the expected behavior?
We'd like to be able to add an option to our .yarnrc that sets a new default for the network concurrency option.

Please mention your node.js, yarn and operating system version.
node v6.7.0, yarn v0.20.0-20170107.1855, OSX v10.12.2

[bestander]

Yeah, I think we should expose all of those flags via configuration options.
Any idea to make it generic?

[cliffmeyers]

Our team has a similar desire to be able to set the --mutex network option via .yarnrc as well. The issue we're facing appears to be related to #2629 which was possibly fixed in #3090 - although that PR doesn't appear to be available in any official release yet.

Regardless of that fix, supporting more config options in .yarnrc seems desirable. I believe that npm allows for any supported config option to be set in .npmrc as described here:
https://docs.npmjs.com/files/npmrc

I noticed there is a mechanism in cli/index.js to grab any rc args and map them onto the commander's args:
https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/blob/master/src/cli/index.js#L139

And the code responsible for parsing out the individual rcargs is here:
https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/blob/master/src/rc.js#L40

The intent of miniparse is unclear to me: the end result seems to allow any flag prefixed with double-dash to be passed through to commander, but other args are ignored.

For example, if I hand-edit .yarnrc and add a line such as this:
--mutex network

Then I find that commander has its mutex option set to network.

I expect this usage is unintended, as I can't actually set this option in the yarnrc via a command like this:
yarn config set --mutex network
as those options are getting "stripped" by commander, presumably. I tried wrapping it with various strings with no success but that doesn't feel like the right way to offer this functionality. The double-dash prefix feels like a command line argument convention; in a config file I'd expect just to set the key value pair.

@bestander perhaps you could explain the intent of that filtering? Then we could discuss what the approach would work best to add this functionality?

[bestander]

This PR added ability to set flags in .yarnrc file #3033.
That should work since 0.23.

Did you try putting --mutex network in the yarnrc manually?
cc @arcanis

[cliffmeyers]

@bestander @arcanis yes, as I indicated above, adding --mutex network by hand to .yarnrc gives the desired behavior. I feel that might not be the best approach for the following reasons:

• A yarn user would expect that config options should be able to be set via yarn config set key value and this doesn't work presently (as outlined above)
• It seems slightly odd for .yarnrc have a mix of "bare" options (such as "email") and "prefixed" options (such as "--mutex")
• Hand-editing the .yarnrc file is explicitly discouraged in the comment at the top of the file: THIS IS AN AUTOGENERATED FILE. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY.

I certainly appreciate the effort put forth in #3033 and it does work, I just wonder whether it could be improved. I'm willing to open a PR but wanted to discuss the approach before laying down any code.

An alternative I'd considered would be the following:

• Create an explicit list of config keys which are stored in .yarnrc but which are _not_ valid command line flags (such as "email" or "lastUpdateCheck")
• Add some logic that ensures any keys in the above list are not passed through to the execution of yarn, but allow all other flags to be passed through.

[bestander]

Yeah, we should definitely allow setting all these options via config
command.

Please go ahead and send a PR

On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 at 08:10, Cliff Meyers [e-mail] wrote:

@bestander https://github.com/bestander @arcanis
https://github.com/arcanis yes, as I indicated above, adding --mutex
network by hand to .yarnrc gives the desired behavior. I feel that might
not be the best approach for the following reasons:

• A yarn user would expect that config options should be able to be
  set via yarn config set key value and this doesn't work presently (as
  outlined above)
• It seems slightly odd for .yarnrc have a mix of "bare" options (such
  as "email") and "prefixed" options (such as "--mutex")
• Hand-editing the .yarnrc file is explicitly discouraged in the
  comment at the top of the file: THIS IS AN AUTOGENERATED FILE. DO NOT
  EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY.

I certainly appreciate the effort put forth in #3033
https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/pull/3033 and it does work, I just
wonder whether it could be improved. I'm willing to open a PR but wanted to
discuss the approach before laying down any code.

An alternative I'd considered would be the following:

• Create an explicit list of config keys which are stored in .yarnrc
  but which are not valid command line flags (such as "email" or
  "lastUpdateCheck")
• Add some logic that ensures any keys in the above list are not
  passed through to the execution of yarn, but allow all other flags to be
  passed through.

—
You are receiving this because you were mentioned.
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub
https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/2457#issuecomment-294505537, or mute
the thread
https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACBdWNagoWLLL6XmPPdrXNEZgOPNLQMsks5rw4DhgaJpZM4LkGKU
.

[cliffmeyers]

I discovered recently that there is a totally reasonable "workaround" for setting command line params in .yarnrc:

yarn config set -- --mutex network

The use of the bare double-dash allows the subsequent parameters to be passed down to yarn rather than evaluated as part of the command.

I'm not sure if that resolves @tobico 's issue too. If it does, then perhaps this issue can be closed and no PR would be required.

[choliver]

@bestander / @cliffmeyers - Setting the mutex globally (i.e. in .yarnrc) leads to problems of its own in some cases. For example, the mapbox-gl postinstall step explicitly invokes Yarn, which leads to deadlock.

[bestander]

That is why we should pressure package owners not to call package manager from within a package manager installation, in most cases Yarn/npm is used as curl there.

[cliffmeyers]

@choliver thanks for the heads up.

[BYK]

Do we still need this or can we close it since yarn config set -- --mutex network works?

[bestander]

@BYK is right, this config can be done via https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/yarnrc#toc-cli-arguments