Bug 425520 – net-libs/nodejs-0.8.1 - npm help command broken

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description cmil 2012-07-09 16:27:51 UTC]

Compressing the man pages in /lib/node_modules/npm/man prevents npm from finding them which breaks the `npm help` command. For example `npm help view` displays a list of top hits instead of the man page for npm view:

$ npm help view
Top hits for "view"
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
npm help view                                                            view:17
npm help index                                                            view:4
npm help faq                                                              view:3
npm help help                                                             view:3
npm help config                                                           view:3
npm help npm                                                              view:2
npm help star                                                             view:1
npm help docs                                                             view:1
npm help search                                                           view:1
npm help cache                                                            view:1
npm help list                                                             view:1
npm help bugs                                                             view:1
npm help changelog                                                        view:1
npm help shrinkwrap                                                       view:1
npm help scripts                                                          view:1
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
(run with -l or --long to see more context)

[Comment 1 Patrick Lauer 2012-08-29 08:19:53 UTC]

+  29 Aug 2012; Patrick Lauer <[e-mail]> +nodejs-0.6.21-r1.ebuild,
+  +nodejs-0.8.8-r1.ebuild, +nodejs-0.9.0-r2.ebuild:
+  Fix for npm docs, #425520

[Comment 2 cmil 2012-08-29 13:29:52 UTC]

It seems that the line

  docompress -x /lib/node_modules/npm/man

introduced in nodejs-0.9.0-r2.ebuild is no longer necessary. The man pages are now installed into /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/man, so the above line just triggers a warning about a nonexistent path.

[Comment 3 Marijn Schouten (RETIRED) 2016-07-08 09:02:12 UTC]

Nodejs-6.2.2's help command is also broken:

$ npm help npm
No results for "npm"

I hope those docs are not behind the doc use flag. (If that is the case, then a proper use description is missing.)

[Comment 4 Jeroen Roovers (RETIRED) 2016-10-25 07:45:17 UTC]

*** Bug 571332 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Comment 5 Michael Lawrence 2017-06-28 20:57:01 UTC]

I'll confirm this is also busted on ARM64. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gfsfqv3p4lvnzi6/AAAE-Mb_8ko1oX3xSROVkP8ia?dl=0

/packages...

[Comment 6 Jonas Stein 2017-10-07 15:01:42 UTC]

Michael, could you please attach your information here, or write it in the text field?

[Comment 7 Jeroen Roovers (RETIRED) 2017-11-25 08:45:35 UTC]

(In reply to Marijn Schouten (RETIRED) from comment #3)
> Nodejs-6.2.2's help command is also broken:
> 
> $ npm help npm
> No results for "npm"
> 
> I hope those docs are not behind the doc use flag. (If that is the case,
> then a proper use description is missing.)

The original bug was fixed in 2012.

Anyone having similar problems with current versions should file a brand new bug report about them.