Deprecate unused+archived @npmcli packages

[lukekarrys]

Now that we have all our packages on the @npmcli team, it was easier to do something I've wanted to do before: map our packages to their GitHub repos and use in the CLI. Using this data as a signal I was able to identify a number of packages I think we should deprecate. All of the deprecations are to match repos that are already archived, although some of the repos were archived as part of my findings here.

There is one outlier npm-merge-driver that I'm not sure what to do with. It's usage has been brought up before by other teams at GitHub. The repo is archived, but I'm not sure if it should be officially deprecated on the registry.

Here are the packages I think we should deprecate and the message we should use to deprecate them:

name	downloads	message
gauge	85,496,147	This package is no longer supported.
npmlog	84,944,008	This package is no longer supported.
are-we-there-yet	84,637,471	This package is no longer supported.
read-package-json	32,676,257	This package is no longer supported. Please use @npmcli/package-json instead.
fs-write-stream-atomic	21,872,169	This package is no longer supported.
move-concurrently	21,800,758	This package is no longer supported.
copy-concurrently	21,361,080	This package is no longer supported.
osenv	18,001,523	This package is no longer supported.
fstream	17,417,284	This package is no longer supported.
uid-number	3,146,340	This package is no longer supported.
read-installed	2,997,918	This package is no longer supported.
@npmcli/disparity-colors	2,018,842	This package is no longer supported.
fstream-ignore	1,227,570	This package is no longer supported.
libnpx	826,798	This package is no longer supported.
npm-registry-client	800,938	This package is no longer supported.
npm-cache-filename	760,099	This package is no longer supported.
lock-verify	523,768	This package is no longer supported.
find-npm-prefix	510,375	This package is no longer supported.
npx	480,460	This package is now part of the npm CLI.
libnpm	416,481	This package is no longer supported.
fstream-npm	251,332	This package is no longer supported.
normalize-git-url	144,093	This package is no longer supported.
realize-package-specifier	91,141	This package is no longer supported.
npm-merge-driver	38,252	????
npmc	11,573	This package is no longer supported. Please use npm instead.
npm-registry-couchapp	1,424	This package is no longer supported.
cipm	205	This package is no longer supported.
npm-profile-cli	16	This package is no longer supported.
fallback-fs	16	This package is no longer supported.
do-you-even-lift	15	This package is no longer supported.
@npmcli/infer-owner	6	This package is no longer supported.
@npmcli/publish-test	5	This package is no longer supported.

---

Below is the full data I used to find the above packages to deprecate.

I went through it all manually since there are no perfect signals here. Eg: some deprecated packages map to active repos and some unused packages are tools that aren't used by the CLI but we don't want to deprecate/archive.

Full Data

pkg	deprecated	unused in CLI	repo	archived	downloads/mo
semver			npm/node-semver		1,333,621,524
which			npm/node-which		372,810,282
hosted-git-info			npm/hosted-git-info		209,001,983
write-file-atomic			npm/write-file-atomic		207,866,405
ini			npm/ini		188,217,804
normalize-package-data			npm/normalize-package-data		174,741,486
json-parse-even-better-errors			npm/json-parse-even-better-errors		172,327,972
nopt			npm/nopt		137,957,775
ssri			npm/ssri		123,397,106
cacache			npm/cacache		120,926,092
mute-stream			npm/mute-stream		114,389,430
abbrev			npm/abbrev-js		104,995,866
gauge	🔄	✅	npm/gauge	✅	88,510,705
npmlog	🔄	✅	npm/npmlog	✅	87,942,806
unique-slug			npm/unique-slug		87,644,950
are-we-there-yet	🔄	✅	npm/are-we-there-yet	✅	87,624,644
unique-filename			npm/unique-filename		87,376,817
make-fetch-happen			npm/make-fetch-happen		79,043,150
@npmcli/fs			npm/fs		75,174,492
minipass-fetch			npm/minipass-fetch		71,253,089
npm-package-arg			npm/npm-package-arg		58,610,162
validate-npm-package-name			npm/validate-npm-package-name		57,975,357
npm-normalize-package-bin			npm/npm-normalize-package-bin		56,232,129
proc-log			npm/proc-log		50,617,515
@npmcli/move-file	✅	✅	npm/move-file	✅	45,669,180
ignore-walk			npm/ignore-walk		41,525,337
npm-bundled			npm/npm-bundled		39,434,268
npm-packlist			npm/npm-packlist		39,316,526
npm-registry-fetch			npm/npm-registry-fetch		34,025,512
read-package-json	🔄	✅	npm/read-package-json	✅	33,861,661
npm-pick-manifest			npm/npm-pick-manifest		33,359,278
pacote			npm/pacote		31,563,760
@npmcli/promise-spawn			npm/promise-spawn		30,635,700
@npmcli/run-script			npm/run-script		30,569,737
@npmcli/git			npm/git		30,179,509
npm-install-checks			npm/npm-install-checks		30,001,004
read-package-json-fast			npm/read-package-json-fast		29,838,478
@npmcli/node-gyp			npm/node-gyp		27,251,184
@npmcli/installed-package-contents			npm/installed-package-contents		26,714,308
npm			npm/cli		24,456,981
fs-write-stream-atomic	🔄	✅	npm/fs-write-stream-atomic	✅	22,699,230
move-concurrently	🔄	✅	npm/move-concurrently	✅	22,624,368
figgy-pudding	✅	✅	npm/figgy-pudding	✅	22,576,728
copy-concurrently	🔄	✅	npm/copy-concurrently	✅	22,170,602
@npmcli/agent			npm/agent		19,556,833
read			npm/read		18,947,045
osenv	🔄	✅	npm/osenv	✅	18,647,743
fstream	🔄	✅	npm/fstream	✅	17,996,868
@npmcli/package-json			npm/package-json		16,664,558
read-cmd-shim			npm/read-cmd-shim		13,745,280
cmd-shim			npm/cmd-shim		13,561,046
@npmcli/map-workspaces			npm/map-workspaces		10,998,327
@npmcli/name-from-folder			npm/name-from-folder		10,833,266
readdir-scoped-modules	✅	✅	npm/readdir-scoped-modules	✅	10,754,863
bin-links			npm/bin-links		9,709,146
@npmcli/arborist			npm/cli		8,893,083
@npmcli/metavuln-calculator			npm/metavuln-calculator		8,776,740
parse-conflict-json			npm/parse-conflict-json		8,638,672
init-package-json			npm/init-package-json		7,864,611
promzard			npm/promzard		7,739,406
libnpmpublish			npm/cli		6,977,692
libnpmaccess			npm/cli		6,906,998
@npmcli/redact			npm/redact		5,678,254
@npmcli/query			npm/query		5,202,231
read-package-tree	✅	✅	npm/read-package-tree	✅	4,418,231
stringify-package	✅	✅	npm/stringify-package	✅	3,539,385
@npmcli/config			npm/cli		3,488,895
uid-number	🔄	✅	npm/uid-number	✅	3,242,552
read-installed	🔄	✅	npm/read-installed	✅	3,106,998
npm-user-validate			npm/npm-user-validate		2,883,902
npm-profile			npm/npm-profile		2,737,728
libnpmsearch			npm/cli		2,676,221
npm-audit-report			npm/npm-audit-report		2,656,999
libnpmhook			npm/cli		2,650,027
libnpmorg			npm/cli		2,641,810
libnpmteam			npm/cli		2,639,256
@npmcli/ci-detect	✅	✅	npm/ci-detect	✅	2,360,377
node-fetch-npm	✅	✅	npm/node-fetch-npm	✅	2,281,028
libnpmpack			npm/cli		2,268,053
libnpmexec			npm/cli		2,253,482
libnpmversion			npm/cli		2,248,538
libnpmfund			npm/cli		2,217,988
libnpmdiff			npm/cli		2,217,181
@npmcli/disparity-colors	🔄	✅	npm/disparity-colors	✅	2,091,264
npm-lifecycle	✅	✅	npm/npm-lifecycle	✅	1,731,168
fstream-ignore	🔄	✅	npm/fstream-ignore	✅	1,253,769
libnpx	🔄	✅	npm/npx	✅	854,950
npm-registry-client	🔄	✅	npm/npm-registry-client	✅	826,607
npm-cache-filename	🔄	✅	npm/npm-cache-filename	✅	784,264
fs-vacuum	✅	✅	npm/fs-vacuum	✅	764,859
proggy			npm/proggy		565,597
lock-verify	🔄	✅	npm/lock-verify	✅	542,075
find-npm-prefix	🔄	✅	npm/find-npm-prefix	✅	528,037
gentle-fs	✅	✅	npm/gentle-fs	✅	523,407
npx	🔄	✅	npm/npx	✅	491,908
libcipm	✅	✅	npm/libcipm	✅	480,044
libnpm	🔄	✅	npm/libnpm	✅	432,430
fstream-npm	🔄	✅	npm/fstream-npm	✅	257,784
normalize-git-url	🔄	✅	npm/normalize-git-url	✅	148,943
realize-package-specifier	🔄	✅	npm/realize-package-specifier	✅	94,322
npm-registry-mock	✅	✅	npm/npm-registry-mock	✅	69,858
npm-merge-driver	❓	✅	npm/npm-merge-driver	✅	39,392
@npmcli/eslint-config			npm/eslint-config		37,459
@npmcli/template-oss			npm/template-oss		37,151
npmc	🔄	✅	npm/cli		11,909
minify-registry-metadata			npm/minify-registry-metadata		6,944
@npmcli/release-please	✅	✅	googleapis/release-please		2,769
dot-prop-legacy	✅	✅	ruyadorno/dot-prop	✅	1,529
npm-registry-couchapp	🔄	✅	npm/npm-registry-couchapp	✅	1,452
node-tar	✅	✅			1,385
node-semver	✅	✅			1,288
@npmcli/lint	✅	✅	npm/lint	✅	784
node-which	✅	✅			758
cipm	🔄	✅	npm/libcipm	✅	215
@npmcli/tap-nock		✅	npm/tap-nock		145
Npm	✅	✅	npm/deprecate-holder		45
do-you-even-lift	🔄	✅	npm/do-you-even-lift	✅	16
npm-profile-cli	🔄	✅	npm/npm-profile		16
@npmcli/stafftools		✅	npm/stafftools		15
@npmcli/pull	✅	✅	npm/pull	✅	13
fallback-fs	🔄	✅	npm/fallback-fs	✅	9
@npmcli/create-oss		✅	npm/create-oss		8
@npmcli/npm-birthday	✅	✅	npm/npm-birthday	✅	8
@npmcli/infer-owner	🔄	✅	isaacs/infer-owner		6
@npmcli/generate-provenance		✅	npm/provenance		2
@npmcli/provenance-cli		✅	npm/provenance		2
@npmcli/publish-test	🔄	✅	npm/publish-test	✅	2

[wraithgar]

npm-merge-driver is a standalone bin that is not really related to the automated merge resolution that npm does internally. It would take a bit of work to get it up to working condition again, namely we would want to spawk what it does now and enforce it, and then we could clean it up. I don't know if this is a priority however. It may just have to be kept on the backlog for now.

[lukekarrys]

In handy script form to run with npm-merge-drived removed:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -xe

npm deprecate gauge "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate npmlog "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate are-we-there-yet "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate read-package-json "This package is no longer supported. Please use @npmcli/package-json instead.""
npm deprecate fs-write-stream-atomic "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate move-concurrently "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate copy-concurrently "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate osenv "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate fstream "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate uid-number "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate read-installed "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate @npmcli/disparity-colors "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate fstream-ignore "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate libnpx "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate npm-registry-client "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate npm-cache-filename "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate lock-verify "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate find-npm-prefix "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate npx "This package is now part of the npm CLI.""
npm deprecate libnpm "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate fstream-npm "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate normalize-git-url "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate realize-package-specifier "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate npmc "This package is no longer supported. Please use npm instead.""
npm deprecate npm-registry-couchapp "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate cipm "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate npm-profile-cli "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate fallback-fs "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate do-you-even-lift "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate @npmcli/infer-owner "This package is no longer supported.""
npm deprecate @npmcli/publish-test "This package is no longer supported.""

[wraithgar]

Thanks @lukekarrys I'll run that ... not on a weekend.

[wraithgar]

Gonna make a back-burner issue for npm-merge-driver separately

[wraithgar]

#854