Notice: Node 10.16.x npm 6.9.0 upgrade `npm ci` regression

[apaprocki]

npm ci no longer passes configuration properly to node-gyp in npm 6.9.0, so many Node.js use cases that require building native modules have completely broken in the 10.16.x upgrade.

While this is technically an npm issue, this will break almost anyone relying on passing custom options to node-gyp for it to even work properly. See the following bugs:
https://npm.community/t/npm-ci-doesnt-respect-npmrc-variables/6032
https://npm.community/t/npm-ci-doesnt-fill-anymore-the-process-env-npm-config-cache-variable-on-post-install-scripts/6658
https://npm.community/t/npm-ci-does-not-compile-native-dependencies-according-to-npmrc-configuration/6069

I found this out on my own because Node 10.16.x default npm is now incapable of building native modules in a container/chroot with no network access:
https://npm.community/t/npm-6-9-x-not-passing-environment-to-node-gyp-regression-from-6-4-x/9323/2

I'm only raising this issue to make the Node team aware (if they weren't already), since the decision was made here to incorporate 6.9.0 into the 10.16 minor semver bump. I have no idea if there is any possibility to revert the 6.9.0 upgrade at this point. At a minimum, perhaps there need to be integration tests for npm commands as part of the total upgrade process, testing node, node-gyp, and npm together.

[MylesBorins]

/cc @isaacs

any idea about this?

[apaprocki]

FWIW it was mentioned in the first link:

Having spent some time on it, is seems that all keys starting with npm_config_ are missing from process.env when you use npm ci.

This looks to have been introduced between v6.5.0 and v6.6.0-next.0.

[isaacs]

This will be fixed in the next npm release, most likely landing Tuesday 2019-06-20.

[mikePMG]

This will be fixed in the next npm release, most likely landing Tuesday 2019-06-20.

This date is a in the past. Can you please check.