ENOLOCAL: can't find package.json file after publishing npm package

Question

Ecosystem

using npm@6.1.0
using node@v8.11.1

Context

I have a JS project that includes a local dependencie :

package.json :

"dependencies": {
   "my_local_module": "file:my_local_module"
},

Then, I published the project as npm private package : so far everything is OK.

Issue

When I try to install my private package, I have this issue :

33 error code ENOLOCAL
34 error Could not install from "node_modules\@my_scope\my_project\my_local_module" as it does not contain a package.json file.

Of course, the package.json file exists. When I try to copy manually the project from gitHub instead of installing it with npm , it works perfectly fine but I really would like to make it works with :

npm install @my_scope\my_project 

Is there a specific way to publish packages when they include local dependencies or anything like that ? Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

You can try to delete your package-lock.json file

I had the same problem and error. The package-lock.json was still doing a reference to "file:my_local_module". I deleted it and re npm installed the module to make it work

Answer 2

I found a report of a similar issue within the npm cli github

https://github.com/npm/cli/issues/1756

It appears this may be an issue with npm v6 (I was using version 6.14.12). Updating npm to v7 seems to have solved this issue for me.