Unable to find packages.json on Windows Manual Install

Describe the bug

I grabbed the latest changeset, d7ed71e, on the develop branch. I think issue #4787 has been resolved, but I’m getting an error that packages.json cannot be found.

Relevant snippet:

[ERROR] npm - npm ERR! error in C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\node_modules\ep_etherpad-lite: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\node_modules\ep_etherpad-lite\package.json'

The file ep_etherpad-lite exists and the contents are “…/src”. If use a file explorer to navigate up one level and into /src, I find packages.json. I don’t think Windows supports using a file for path redirection this way. I tried replacing ep_etherpad-lite with a shortcut, but that didn’t work. I deleted ep_etherpad-lite, created a folder in its place and copied packages.json into this folder: that caused this issue to go away and start.bat seems to run successfully.

However, start.bat auto exits and returns to the command line and there doesn’t appear to be a server running in the background. I don’t know if that is a side effect of the change I described above. I then tried using node src/node/server.js to start the server instead, but auto-quits in the same way.

1. Here’s the complete log from before I started playing with the ep_etherpad-lite file.

C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop>start.bat

C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop>node src\node\server.js
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.780] [DEBUG] console - Running on Node v14.15.5 (minimum required Node version: 10.17.0)
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.793] [INFO] console - All relative paths will be interpreted relative to the identified Etherpad base dir: C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.794] [INFO] console - Random string used for versioning assets: 04155d40
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.795] [DEBUG] AbsolutePaths - Relative path "settings.json" can be rewritten to "C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\settings.json"
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.796] [DEBUG] AbsolutePaths - Relative path "credentials.json" can be rewritten to "C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\credentials.json"
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.797] [WARN] console - No settings file found in C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\settings.json. Continuing using defaults!
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.797] [INFO] console - No credentials file found in C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\credentials.json. Ignoring.
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.798] [WARN] console - No "skinName" parameter found. Please check out settings.json.template and update your settings.json. Falling back to the default "colibris".
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.799] [INFO] console - Using skin "colibris" in dir: C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\src\static\skins\colibris
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.799] [INFO] console - Session key file "C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\SESSIONKEY.txt" not found. Creating with random contents.
[2021-02-16 19:00:20.800] [WARN] console - DirtyDB is used. This is not recommended for production. File location: C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\var\dirty.db
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.142] [INFO] server - Starting Etherpad...
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.180] [INFO] runNpm - Executing command: npm ls --long --json --depth=0
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.330] [INFO] runNpm - npm --version: 6.14.11
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.615] [ERROR] npm - npm ERR! error in C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\node_modules\ep_etherpad-lite: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\node_modules\ep_etherpad-lite\package.json'
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.623] [ERROR] runNpm - npm command failed: npm ls --long --json --depth=0
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.624] [ERROR] server - Error occurred while starting Etherpad
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.625] [ERROR] server - Error: Command exited non-zero: npm ls --long --json --depth=0
    at exports (C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\src\node\utils\run_cmd.js:71:25)
    at exports (C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\src\node\utils\run_npm.js:25:13)
    at Object.exports.getPackages (C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\src\static\js\pluginfw\plugins.js:73:14)
    at Object.exports.update (C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\src\static\js\pluginfw\plugins.js:56:34)
    at Object.exports.start (C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\src\node\server.js:137:19)
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.625] [INFO] server - Exiting...
[2021-02-16 19:00:21.626] [INFO] server - Waiting for Node.js to exit...

1. Log from after I deleted the ep_etherpad-lite file and copied packages.json into a new folder in its place.

C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop>node ./src/node/server.js
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.334] [DEBUG] console - Running on Node v12.20.2 (minimum required Node version: 10.17.0)
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.348] [INFO] console - All relative paths will be interpreted relative to the identified Etherpad base dir: C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.349] [INFO] console - Random string used for versioning assets: 5a4d5cee
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.349] [DEBUG] AbsolutePaths - Relative path "settings.json" can be rewritten to "C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\settings.json"
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.350] [DEBUG] AbsolutePaths - Relative path "credentials.json" can be rewritten to "C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\credentials.json"
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.350] [WARN] console - No settings file found in C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\settings.json. Continuing using defaults!
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.351] [INFO] console - No credentials file found in C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\credentials.json. Ignoring.
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.351] [WARN] console - No "skinName" parameter found. Please check out settings.json.template and update your settings.json. Falling back to the default "colibris".
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.352] [INFO] console - Using skin "colibris" in dir: C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\src\static\skins\colibris
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.352] [INFO] console - Session key loaded from: C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\SESSIONKEY.txt
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.352] [WARN] console - DirtyDB is used. This is not recommended for production. File location: C:\Users\alexe\Downloads\etherpad-lite-develop-d7ed71e\etherpad-lite-develop\var\dirty.db
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.694] [INFO] server - Starting Etherpad...
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.731] [INFO] runNpm - Executing command: npm ls --long --json --depth=0
[2021-02-16 19:34:11.875] [INFO] runNpm - npm --version: 6.14.11
[2021-02-16 19:34:12.178] [INFO] runNpm - Successfully ran command: npm ls --long --json --depth=0
[2021-02-16 19:34:12.178] [INFO] server - Installed plugins:
[2021-02-16 19:34:12.179] [INFO] server - Etherpad is running

To Reproduce

1. I downloaded changeset d7ed71e from the develop branch.
2. Executed InstallOnWindows.bat (no reported errors).
3. Executed start.bat and the above error was reported.

[webzwo0i]

Interesting. The error from @alexeisenhart with rjquery is thrown from pad.html (before ace.js runs) while your error seems to be thrown later when initializing Ace2Editor.

[JohnMcLear]

Wow well done mate