ENG-0000 - further refinement of pipeline steps for publishing (#422)

Also bumped patch version.

Author: mcnielsen

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@al/core",
-  "version": "1.4.0",
+  "version": "1.4.1",
   "description": "Node Enterprise Packages for Alert Logic (NEPAL) Core Library",
   "main": "./dist/index.cjs.js",
   "types": "./dist/index.d.ts",

ps_spec.yml

@@ -93,12 +93,7 @@ stages:
 
               PKGNAME=$(node -e 'console.log(require("./package.json").name)')
               PKGVERSION=$(node -e 'console.log(require("./package.json").version)')
-              PKGTAG=$(node -e 'console.log(require("./package.json").tag)')
-
-              if [ "$PKGTAG" -eq "" ]; then
-                  PKGTAG="latest"
-                  echo "No tag specified in package.json, defaulting to 'latest'"
-              fi
+              PKGTAG=$(node -e 'console.log(require("./package.json").tag ?? "latest")')
 
               V_VERSION=v$PKGVERSION
               WORDCOUNT=$(npm view "${PKGNAME}@${PKGVERSION}" | wc -c)