[BUG] Version 7.x Nerfs JSON Output for Install Command

[bdkjones]

Summary:

npm 7.x seriously nerfed the usefulness of the --json flag when paired with the install command. (It may have done so with other commands as well; I've only tested install.)

I do realize that --json is marked experimental for all commands other than ls and search, but this is a MASSIVE regression in usefulness. I can understand changing the structure of the returned JSON, etc. while the feature is experimental, but nuking all of the details and returning only the bare minimum summary information must be an inadvertent change, right?

This makes npm exceptionally difficult to integrate with build tools and scripts. I've rolled back from 7.x until this can be addressed. Thanks!

Current Behavior:

Using npm 7.5.3 run this command: npm install jquery --json

The output produced is:

{
  "added": 1,
  "removed": 0,
  "changed": 0,
  "audited": 2,
  "funding": 0,
  "audit": {
    "vulnerabilities": {
      "info": 0,
      "low": 0,
      "moderate": 0,
      "high": 0,
      "critical": 0,
      "total": 0
    },
    "dependencies": {
      "prod": 2,
      "dev": 0,
      "optional": 0,
      "peer": 0,
      "peerOptional": 0,
      "total": 1
    }
  }
}

Expected Behavior:

Here's what npm < 7 spits out for the same command.

Notice the detail in added—we can see what was done, not just how many things were done.

{
  "added": [
    {
      "action": "add",
      "name": "jquery",
      "version": "3.5.1",
      "path": "/Users/bdkjones/Desktop/untitled folder/node_modules/jquery"
    }
  ],
  "removed": [],
  "updated": [],
  "moved": [],
  "failed": [],
  "warnings": [],
  "audit": {
    "actions": [],
    "advisories": {},
    "muted": [],
    "metadata": {
      "vulnerabilities": {
        "info": 0,
        "low": 0,
        "moderate": 0,
        "high": 0,
        "critical": 0
      },
      "dependencies": 1,
      "devDependencies": 0,
      "optionalDependencies": 0,
      "totalDependencies": 1
    }
  },
  "funding": "",
  "elapsed": 745
}

Steps To Reproduce:

1. Just run npm install [any package name] --json on npm 7.x and compare the output to npm 6.x and below.

Environment:

• OS: macOS 11.2.1
• Node: 14.15.1 and 15.10.0 (I tested both)
• npm: 7.5.3

[bdkjones]

Sort-of related (in that another JSON thing got broken): #2740

[bdkjones]

Any progress on this? It's a very large regression from 6.x and I hate staying on an outdated version of npm.

[lukekarrys]

Thanks for the report @bdkjones. I'm tracking down issues like this as we're working on a larger epic of how npm writes output to the terminal. This will likely come after that, but I agree that the additional information is very helpful.