prebuild-install hang

[smashwilson]

Prerequisites

• Put an X between the brackets on this line if you have done all of the following:
  • Reproduced the problem in Safe Mode: http://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/#using-safe-mode
  • Followed all applicable steps in the debugging guide: http://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/
  • Checked the FAQs on the message board for common solutions: https://discuss.atom.io/c/faq
  • Checked that your issue isn't already filed: https://github.com/issues?utf8=✓&q=is%3Aissue+user%3Aatom
  • Checked that there is not already an Atom package that provides the described functionality: https://atom.io/packages

Description

When running npm install -g @atom/watcher, the prebuild-install process successfully completes, but hangs forever:

$ npm_config_loglevel=silly npm install -g @atom/watcher

# ...

> @atom/watcher@1.2.0 install /Users/smashwilson/.nodenv/versions/8.9.3/lib/node_modules/@atom/watcher
> prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild

prebuild-install info begin Prebuild-install version 5.2.1
prebuild-install info looking for cached prebuild @ /Users/smashwilson/.npm/_prebuilds/bb9a4f-watcher-v1.2.0-node-v57-darwin-x64.tar.gz
prebuild-install info found cached prebuild
prebuild-install info unpacking @ /Users/smashwilson/.npm/_prebuilds/bb9a4f-watcher-v1.2.0-node-v57-darwin-x64.tar.gz
prebuild-install info unpack resolved to /Users/smashwilson/.nodenv/versions/8.9.3/lib/node_modules/@atom/watcher/build/Release/watcher.node
prebuild-install info unpack required /Users/smashwilson/.nodenv/versions/8.9.3/lib/node_modules/@atom/watcher/build/Release/watcher.node successfully
prebuild-install info install Successfully installed prebuilt binary!

Steps to Reproduce

1. npm install -g @atom/watcher on macOS

Expected behavior:

@atom/watcher to be installed successfully.

Actual behavior:

npm hangs forever at the final log message.

Reproduces how often:

100%

Versions

@atom/watcher@1.2.0.

Additional Information

N/A

[smashwilson]

My suspicion right now is that the test require that prebuild-install does to ensure the .node file is loadable is starting a worker thread which is preventing the parent process from exiting cleanly?

[smashwilson]

Ah, #11 is related.

[smashwilson]

The real solution to this is to improve the shutdown behavior of the watcher library. I think I'd like the worker thread to work more like the polling thread: it should be created when the first watch root is added, not by default, and shut down cleanly when the final watch root is deactivated. The shutdown hook described by #11 would work by deactivating all watches, and this problem would not occur because the test load that prebuild-install does would not launch the worker thread.

Unfortunately, this would require a little more mental bandwidth than I have available right now - it would involve some fairly risky multithreaded C++. I'm going to push a new minor version that temporarily removes the prebuild-install call in the package.json install hook. This will prevent prebuilds from working (sorry!) but it'll at least be possible to install.

cc @nono

[smashwilson]

Okay, prebuilds are working as of 1.3.0:

master ≡ ~\src\watcher
> npm install -g @atom/watcher@latest
C:\Users\smash\AppData\Roaming\npm\watcher -> C:\Users\smash\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\@atom\watcher\lib\cli.js

> @atom/watcher@1.3.0 install C:\Users\smash\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\@atom\watcher
> prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild

+ @atom/watcher@1.3.0
updated 1 package in 11.426s

👌