[BUG] npm show --json outputs to stderr instead of stdout when registry responds with 404

[ahmadnassri]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

run any command with --json and a 404 response:

$ npm --json show foobar@0.0.0 2> stderr.txt 1> stdout.txt

all the content is on stderr:

$ cat stderr.txt
npm ERR! code E404
npm ERR! 404 No match found for version 0.0.0
npm ERR! 404 
npm ERR! 404  'foobar@0.0.0' is not in this registry.
npm ERR! 404 
npm ERR! 404 Note that you can also install from a
npm ERR! 404 tarball, folder, http url, or git url.
{
  "error": {
    "code": "E404",
    "summary": "No match found for version 0.0.0",
    "detail": "\n 'foobar@0.0.0' is not in this registry.\n\nNote that you can also install from a\ntarball, folder, http url, or git url."
  }
}

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/ahmad/.npm/_logs/2022-08-10T02_39_53_304Z-debug-0.log

empty result on stdout:

$ cat stdout.txt

Expected Behavior

the json object should be written to stdout:

$ npm --json show foobar@0.0.0 2> stderr.txt 1> stdout.txt

$ cat stderr.txt
npm ERR! code E404
npm ERR! 404 No match found for version 0.0.0
npm ERR! 404 
npm ERR! 404  'foobar@0.0.0' is not in this registry.
npm ERR! 404 
npm ERR! 404 Note that you can also install from a
npm ERR! 404 tarball, folder, http url, or git url.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/ahmad/.npm/_logs/2022-08-10T02_39_53_304Z-debug-0.log

$ cat stdout.txt

{
  "error": {
    "code": "E404",
    "summary": "No match found for version 0.0.0",
    "detail": "\n 'foobar@0.0.0' is not in this registry.\n\nNote that you can also install from a\ntarball, folder, http url, or git url."
  }
}

Steps To Reproduce

see above

Environment

• npm: 8.15.0

[wraithgar]

This was originally brought up in #2740 and has an ongoing discussion in #4724.