Open
Description
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
When installing a local package with --install-links, if that package has its own local dependencies, the installation fails. Is this behavior by design?
In this example, package b depends on package a, both located in sibling directories:
$ tree . -I node_modules
.
├── a
│ ├── package-lock.json
│ └── package.json
├── b
│ ├── package-lock.json
│ └── package.json
└── mainpkg
├── package-lock.json
└── package.json
4 directories, 6 files
$ cat b/package.json
{"name":"b","dependencies":{"a":"file:../a"}}
The npm CLI attempts to resolve ../a from within node_modules/b or node_modules/a, which does not exist. This results in an ENOENT error:
$ cd mainpkg && npm install --install-links ../b
npm error code ENOENT
npm error syscall open
npm error path /home/mukai/Documents/mainpkg/node_modules/a/package.json
npm error errno -2
npm error enoent Could not read package.json: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/mukai/Documents/mainpkg/node_modules/a/package.json'
npm error enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
npm error enoent
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/mukai/.npm/_logs/2025-06-03T11_28_04_990Z-debug-0.log
Expected Behavior
The dependency a, as listed in b's package.json, should be resolved relative to b itself (i.e., ../a from b). As a result, the structure of mainpkg/node_modules should look like this:
$ tree mainpkg/node_modules
mainpkg/node_modules
├── a -> ../../a
└── b -> ../../b
3 directories, 0 files
Steps To Reproduce
$ mkdir a b mainpkg
$ echo '{"name":"a"}' > a/package.json
$ echo '{"name":"b"}' > b/package.json
$ cd b && npm install ../a && cd ../
$ cd mainpkg && npm init --yes
$ npm install --install-links ../b
Environment
- npm: 11.4.1
- Node.js: v22.14.0
- OS Name: Ubuntu 24.04
- System Model Name: ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-7th
- npm config:
; "user" config from /home/mukai/.npmrc
//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken = (protected)
; node bin location = /home/mukai/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/node
; node version = v22.14.0
; npm local prefix = /home/mukai/Documents/mainpkg
; npm version = 11.4.1
; cwd = /home/mukai/Documents/mainpkg
; HOME = /home/mukai
; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults.