unable to install npm when compose tree

[vtolstov]

When compose tree i have nodejs in my packages, but it fails to complete installing:
error: Postprocessing: renaming etc: unlinkat(etc): Directory not empty

[lucab]

Thanks for the report.
This smells like a funnily behaving script in the underlying RPM, which version is being installed?

[vtolstov]

npm have such files in /etc
/etc/npmignore
/etc/npmrc

i think that rpm-ostree breaks compose with it

[vtolstov]

npm-6.13.4-1.12.15.0.1.fc31.x86_64.rpm
and
nodejs-12.15.0-1.fc31.x86_64.rpm

[jlebon]

Hmm, is this with or without --unified-core? Note not using --unified-core is almost deprecated at this point (see #1793).

[jlebon]

(Specifically re. npm/nodejs though, are you sure this isn't something you want to be running in a container instead?)

[achilleas-k]

I think we've run into this same issue now in osbuild. I was coming to open a new issue, but I think this is the same one.

The core issue in our case (which I suspect is the same here) is that npm expects its config in {prefix}/etc/npmrc [1] and the npm rpm packages a symlink at /usr/etc/npmrc pointing to /etc/npmrc [2].
While preparing the tree for conversion, the move of /etc to /usr/etc fails because the destination exists and isn't empty [3].

I'm not sure how to best get around this.

[1] npm/npm#533 (comment)
[2] https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/rpms/nodejs/-/blob/c9s/nodejs.spec#L593
[3] https://github.com/osbuild/osbuild/blob/36341203a157000baf29ab25f6044bc03a53903f/stages/org.osbuild.ostree.preptree#L123-L124