[BUG] npm version command issuing invalid git command to check repository status

[bcowgill]

Current Behavior:

I am running the npm version command but it is issuing an invalid git command to check whether the repository is clean and therefore always fails.

Expected Behavior:

npm should either check the git version or issue an alternate --porcelain syntax to work properly with git, or report which version of git it requires to operate correctly.

Steps To Reproduce:

1. In the environment shown below
2. Run 'npm version patch -m "release Version patch %s, now with double cleaning action." '
3. See error:
   npm ERR! code 129
   npm ERR! command failed
   npm ERR! command /usr/bin/git status --porcelain=v1 -uno
   npm ERR! error: option `porcelain' takes no value
   npm ERR! usage: git status [options] [--] ...
   npm ERR!
   npm ERR! -v, --verbose be verbose
   npm ERR! -s, --short show status concisely
   npm ERR! -b, --branch show branch information
   npm ERR! --porcelain machine-readable output

Environment:

• OS: Ubuntu 14.04
• Node: 12.19.0
• npm: 7.5.6
• git: 1.9.1

Note, when I run the command /usr/bin/git status --porcelain -uno
instead, it correctly shows the status of the repo so it seems npm is expecting some version of git without verifying that it has that version.

[ljharb]

git v1.9 is very ancient; it seems reasonable that npm ensures that git is a version released more recently than ~6 years ago.

[bcowgill]

Yep, I realise this, perhaps at least give a warning message about what version of git you support.

For now I'm modifying my pre-version scripts to do the right thing as I cannot easily upgrade git on this machine.

An apparently innocuous npm install -g npm broke me. :-(

I guess it's time to upgrade to a new laptop ;-)

[ljharb]

Given the number of unpatched security vulnerabilities in v1.9, if you really can't upgrade git, it might be :-)

[darcyclarke]

Resolution here on our end is to provide more clear docs/messaging for unsupported versions of deps we have (like git)