Windows: command failed: "npm install --global ...", error: Error { kind: NotFound, message: "program not found" }

[thehaseebahmed]

I have npm installed via nvm on Windows but keep getting this error:

Error: 
   0: command failed: "npm install --global @fission-ai/openspec", error: Error { kind: NotFound, message: "program not found" }

Expected Outcome

1. npm install should work since running npm -v returns me the version of my node package manager.
2. Even if one backend fails, other backends should still install software

[ripytide]

I can reproduce.

If I run Get-Command npm in a terminal it says the npm command is actually C:\nvm4w\nodejs\npm.ps1 which is powershell script not an .exe which is what rust's Command is designed for which is why it can't find it.

We might have to wrap command execution on cmd /C on windows which should fix this.

As for the second issue of the other backends not succeeding if one fails. I'm conflicted I don't really like continuing anything after getting an error anywhere as it makes state management a lot messier, especially with things like hooks involved.

[thehaseebahmed]

I do understand the state management part but I feel that states of backends should be independent of each other. This also reminds me of another issue, order of backends installs. VS Code/Codium being an app level backend, winget being an OS level one, winget should always execute before code backend because otherwise, on the first setup, vs code backend will always fail until VS Code is installed.

[ripytide]

Yeah I can see that, since backends should be independent we can continue installing one if another fails unlike an individual package manager like pacman which doesn't continue installing a list of packages if one fails since there may be dependencies between packages but since backends should be independent then we know this shouldn't happen.

Which of course then leads into your next point, I don't want to support inter-backend dependencies like VSCode depending on winget, because this can get complicated really quickly. Like I can imagine complicated relationships between package mangers that can be installed by other package managers. It's much simpler for metapac if it is the users responsibility to ensure that their backends are properly installed before attempting to use them through metapac.