[RRFC] ability to run scripts standalone, without their pre- and post- associates

[morgaan]

Motivation ("The Why")

To provide a way to run npm script without the pre- and/or post- scripts

When

When running npm run <script>

Where

npm cli

How

By passing flags for example:

• npm run test --no-pre, or
• npm run test --no-post, or
• npm run test --no-pre-post

Current Behaviour

pre- and post- scripts cannot be skipped, workaround exist but clumsy, for example:

"scripts": {
    "rawtest": "mocha -r ts-node/register src/**/*.spec.ts",
    "pretest": "<some flow that isn't always desired>"
    "test": "npm run rawtest",
  }

Desired Behaviour

• the pre- scripts should be skipped when run npm run <script> --no-pre
• the post- scripts should be skipped when run npm run <script> --no-post
• both pre- and post- scripts should be skipped when run npm run <script> --no-pre-post

References

Was added by @beenotung there npm/cli#484

[gingur]

I think this could also solve https://npm.community/t/ignore-scripts-ignores-all-scripts/1403 , being able to run npm install without "post" scripts (but let dependency installs work as expected)

[askirmas]

I found 2 better sugar syntaxes until it is not implemented on core level

{
  "test--raw": "mocha",
  "pretest": "<some flow that isn't always desired>",
  "test": "npm run test--raw",
  "start --raw": "node server",
  "poststart": "open champagne",
  "start": "npm run start\\ --raw"
}

Besides, git uses -n --no-verify

[ljharb]

@askirmas npm run start -- --raw and npm test -- --raw works without all those -- hijinks in the scripts.

[askirmas]

@askirmas npm run start -- --raw and npm test -- --raw works without all those -- hijinks in the scripts.

start --raw will run also hooks: prestart, start with arg --raw and poststart. That's not the point of issue.

I explained a visual trick for human eyes until npm run has no option itself like --ignore-scripts or --dry-run

[ljharb]

In that case, I use your technique often :-) about 240 of my projects all use npm run tests-only for just the tests, because npm test invokes npm run pretest and npm run posttest, and in CI, i don't want the linter running on the 100 node versions i want the tests running, for example.

[askirmas]

But this hack makes package.json to look dirty.

[ljharb]

I don't think a single extra script looks "dirty", especially not compared to a bunch of extra double-dashes everywhere - but obviously the cleanest would be a way to do npm test --ignore-pre-post-scripts or similar.

[askirmas]

Here I guess

https://github.com/npm/cli/blob/656bce7dd0f9753a273912e803261ed246593924/lib/run-script.js#L79

[beenotung]

I think we can (easily?) write a script to read from the package.json and execute the command from local node_module or PATH in env according to archive what we want, once we made it, npm may adopt our impl into the core

[ruyadorno]

We have implemented #185 in the the v7 beta which does what is described here but with a different syntax:

npm run <script-name> --ignore-scripts