[BUG] npm view --json command returns not only JSON if failed

[ThePlenkov]

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

Use case

I have a monorepo with workspaces. Each workspace gets published to a separate package. In CI pipeline I want to check whether is module needs to be published or no. So to make a central decision which packages I need to publish I would love to know what are the most recent published versions. So what I do I run such a command npm view -ws --json to have a common list of published packages. In case if I add one more package which is not yet published - I get an error npm ERR! 404 Not Found

Expected Behavior

For a single request it makes sense - for a bulk mode - I would prefer to have this error as a part of json payload.

It's ok to have an additional flag to indicate that behavior.

Do you think is possible?

Thank you!

Steps To Reproduce

1. Create a new monorepo with couple workspaces
2. Publish them
3. Add a new workspace
4. Run npm view -ws --json

Environment

• npm: 8.12.1
• Node.js: v18.4.0

[ljharb]

Can you try with npm v8.18?

[ThePlenkov]

of course . Result is same. Actually I thought - it looks like the issue is in view --json command itself. It would be nice if on the error in json mode it would react with json payload, not log

[lukekarrys]

@ThePlenkov Thanks for the report. I'm tracking a few issues with json output (ref: #4724) and will add this to the list.

Is it ok to recharacterize this issue as only to do with the json payload? I would expect npm -ws to fail as you said if any of the workspaces are missing.

[ThePlenkov]

@lukekarrys I totally agree. If npm view --json -ws will fail with json containing responses for all workspaces - that would be just perfect! Exit code is correct