[BUG] npm info exits with zero exit code if package@version is not found

[ThisIsMissEm]

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

If I do:

npm info npm@8.7.1 && echo $?

Then the exit code is 0, but no output from npm info is printed, as 8.7.1 of npm doesn't exist. I would expect npm info to give a non-zero exit code if the package at the specified version doesn't exist. If the package doesn't exist at all, then npm info does have a non-zero exit code (with logs telling you it doesn't exist)

Expected Behavior

npm info npm@8.7.1

Would log a message saying the specified version of that package doesn't exist, and exit with a non-zero exit code, much like for non-existent packages.

Steps To Reproduce

See above, assuming npm@8.7.1 hasn't been published in the meantime.

Environment

• npm: 8.7.1
• Node.js: v16.13.1
• OS Name: MacOS latest
• System Model Name:
• npm config: no non-default configuration.

[ljharb]

I'd indeed expect an error, just like npm show $doesNotExist errors out.

[ThisIsMissEm]

npm show npm@8.7.1 has the same behaviour as npm info npm@8.7.1

[ljharb]

yes, they're aliases of the same command.

[simoneb]

This is a breaking change for us, we were relying on the behavior that nothing was output and a successful exit code was returned for a package/version that didn't exist

[alasdairhurst]

@simoneb conversely, returning nothing is a breaking change for us. It's not clear when the regression was introduced though but it could be reasonable to introduce a feature to opt-in to this behavior.

That said you can always redirect the output to /dev/null and add || true to get the behavior you want :)

On our side, maybe there's another way to detect if a package was not published in one line of bash...