"npm install" exited with code -1 on dotnet publish

Steps to reproduce

• Update SPA templates with dotnet new --install Microsoft.DotNet.Web.Spa.ProjectTemplates::2.0.0.
• Create a new SPA app with dotnet new angular.
• Run dotnet restore in the root.
• Run npm i in the ClientApp.
• Run dotnet publish -c release -r win-x64 in the root.

Expected behavior

Get a published app.

Actual behavior

Get the error MSB3073: The command "npm install" exited with code -1..

Additional info

App successfully run in debug mode in VS code. Only publish doesn’t work.

Environment data

dotnet --info output:

.NET Command Line Tools (2.1.201)

Product Information:
 Version:            2.1.201
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  7932dc6179

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.17134
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.1.201\

Microsoft .NET Core Shared Framework Host

  Version  : 2.0.7
  Build    : 2d61d0b043915bc948ebf98836fefe9ba942be11

dotnet publish -c release -r win-x64 -v diag output (>38MB): https://yadi.sk/i/bt6ATlRG3Z8sAc

pt.csproj source code:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.0</TargetFramework>
    <TypeScriptCompileBlocked>true</TypeScriptCompileBlocked>
    <TypeScriptToolsVersion>Latest</TypeScriptToolsVersion>
    <IsPackable>false</IsPackable>
    <SpaRoot>ClientApp\</SpaRoot>
    <DefaultItemExcludes>$(DefaultItemExcludes);$(SpaRoot)node_modules\**</DefaultItemExcludes>

    <!-- Set this to true if you enable server-side prerendering -->
    <BuildServerSideRenderer>false</BuildServerSideRenderer>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.All" Version="2.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.SpaServices.Extensions" Version="2.0.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Tools" Version="2.0.1" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <!-- Don't publish the SPA source files, but do show them in the project files list -->
    <Content Remove="$(SpaRoot)**" />
    <None Include="$(SpaRoot)**" Exclude="$(SpaRoot)node_modules\**" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Target Name="DebugEnsureNodeEnv" BeforeTargets="Build" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' And !Exists('$(SpaRoot)node_modules') ">
    <!-- Ensure Node.js is installed -->
    <Exec Command="node --version" ContinueOnError="true">
      <Output TaskParameter="ExitCode" PropertyName="ErrorCode" />
    </Exec>
    <Error Condition="'$(ErrorCode)' != '0'" Text="Node.js is required to build and run this project. To continue, please install Node.js from https://nodejs.org/, and then restart your command prompt or IDE." />
    <Message Importance="high" Text="Restoring dependencies using 'npm'. This may take several minutes..." />
    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm install" />
  </Target>

  <Target Name="PublishRunWebpack" AfterTargets="ComputeFilesToPublish">
    <!-- As part of publishing, ensure the JS resources are freshly built in production mode -->
    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm install" />
    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm run build -- --prod" />
    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm run build:ssr -- --prod" Condition=" '$(BuildServerSideRenderer)' == 'true' " />

    <!-- Include the newly-built files in the publish output -->
    <ItemGroup>
      <DistFiles Include="$(SpaRoot)dist\**; $(SpaRoot)dist-server\**" />
      <DistFiles Include="$(SpaRoot)node_modules\**" Condition="'$(BuildServerSideRenderer)' == 'true'" />
      <ResolvedFileToPublish Include="@(DistFiles->'%(FullPath)')" Exclude="@(ResolvedFileToPublish)">
        <RelativePath>%(DistFiles.Identity)</RelativePath>
        <CopyToPublishDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToPublishDirectory>
      </ResolvedFileToPublish>
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>

</Project>

[PKLeso]

Hi, try and edit your project file by removing the section below:

<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm install" />
<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm run build -- --prod" />
<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SpaRoot)" Command="npm run build:ssr -- --prod" Condition=" '$(BuildServerSideRenderer)' == 'true' " />

Then save, re-publish again.

[Scorpion1786]

I too faced this issue in CI build, the issue was, i was using 10.X version of the node.js in my local development, while default CI build was using the 6.X version of node.js for building the solution. i added new job in the pipeline before my solution build job in the pipeline - “Use Node 10.X” and mentioned the specific version which i required for. i pushed latest into the master branch and solution got build successfully. 😃