Better support for monorepos

[paeolo]

🐛 bug report

On a lerna-based monorepo, there are some issues with patch-package.

Suppose I have this folder structure...

.
├── ...
├── packages
│   ├── a
│     └── patches
│     └── package.json
├── node_modules
└── package.json

... and suppose I put patch-package dependency in the package a together with a postinstall script.

🤔 Current Behavior

The package a should work in isolation from the top-level folder and other packages.

• When I do a npm i on the top-level folder, it will install dependencies and so do a npm i on a (if things are well configured). But probably it will hoist dependencies of a in the top-level node_modules instead of a local one (ie. instead of a node_modules inside the a folder).
• So patch-package will be executed and tries to patch things in a/node_modules but since dependencies are hoisted in the top-level folder, it will fail (if no symlink are present).

💁 Possible Solution

Add a flag to enable patching of the top-level node_modules. ie:

• it's very easy to find the root folder, just do a find-up for a package.json that contains a workspaces field and/or a lerna.json file.
• From there, if you can't patch the local node_modules folder (ie. for instance it doesn't exist) tries to patch the root node_modules (when flag is enabled)

🔦 Context

• I have a monorepo and I really don't want to put the patches in the root folder, but rather in the packages, so patch-package can work for packages individually.
• Also in my setup there are no local node_modules ie. no node_modules in packages/a and I would like patch-package to work out-of-the-box for this kind of situation (with a flag if it's ok).
• I don't want to patch patch-package

🌍 Your Environment

Software	Version(s)
patch-package	6.2.2

[jony89]

+1

Experiencing the exact same issue. this becomes even more needed since npm 7 workspaces is out

[KevinGorjan]

+1

[tappin-kr]

Any update on this? Currently running into this same issue, its a pain.

Any workarounds? @paeolo ?

[tappin-kr]

As a hacky workaround, I was able to add this to my postinstall.

"postinstall": "cp -r ../../package_name node_modules/package_name && patch-package",

[paeolo]

@tappin-kr I didn't use it yet, but I planned to use Yarn 2 and it seems it can handle patches itself without the need for an external package like patch-package

[wibb36]

@paeolo Yes, sure!! but how about those who are not planning on migrating to Yarn 2 just yet(such as myself)? Monorepo is the way to go these days and it would be nice to have patch-package supports it.

[JB-CHAUVIN]

Hello, anything new about this issue ?

[bd82]

I am wondering if this is an issue with patch-package or if this could be solved if and when npm would
support the nohoist option?

• [RRFC] Add nohoist option for workspaces npm/rfcs#287

[0x0a0d]

my solution: https://gist.github.com/0x0a0d/a22bdb57c736c8f0adc9209295aff7ed

[NathanC]

Any updates or modern workarounds on this? The solution that @0x0a0d gave isn't relevant to me as I'm using the new version of lerna that simply uses workspaces.

[tcguoxing]

I also have the same problem and my solution is to set the "--path-dir" as the relative path value after my "patch-package" command.

[asp3]

having the same issue, using turbo repo.