Selective versions resolutions

accepted/0000-selective-versions-resolutions.md

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+- Start Date: 2017-05-21
+- RFC PR: (leave this empty)
+- Yarn Issue: (leave this empty)
+
+# Summary
+
+Allow to select a nested dependency version via the `resolutions` field of
+the `package.json` file.
+
+# Motivation
+
+The motivation was initially discussed in
+[yarnpkg/yarn#2763](https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/2763).
+
+Basically, the problem with the current behaviour of yarn is that it is
+not possible to force the use of a particular version for a nested dependency.
+
+## Example
+
+For example, given the following content in the `package.json`:
+```json
+ "devDependencies": {
+    "@angular/cli": "1.0.3",
+    "typescript": "2.3.2"
+  }
+```
+
+The `yarn.lock` file will contain:
+```
+"typescript@>=2.0.0 <2.3.0":
+  version "2.2.2"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/typescript/-/typescript-2.2.2.tgz#606022508479b55ffa368b58fee963a03dfd7b0c"
+
+[email protected]:
+  version "2.3.2"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/typescript/-/typescript-2.3.2.tgz#f0f045e196f69a72f06b25fd3bd39d01c3ce9984"
+```
+
+Also, there will be:
+- `[email protected]` in `node_modules/typescript`
+- `[email protected]` in `node_modules/@angular/cli/node_modules`.
+
+## Problem
+
+In this context, it is impossible to force the use of `[email protected]` for
+the whole project (except by flattening the whole project, which we don't want).
+
+It makes sense for typescript as the user intent is clearly to use typescript
+2.3.2 for compiling all its project, and with the current behaviour, the angular
+CLI (responsible of compiling `.ts` files) will simply use the 2.2.2 version
+from its `node_modules`.
+
+## Variations of the original problem
+
+Similarly, even using such a content for `package.json`:
+```json
+ "devDependencies": {
+    "@angular/cli": "1.0.3"
+  }
+```
+
+The need could arise for forcing the use of `[email protected]` (or
+`[email protected]` for that matter).
+
+In these example, the need does not seem very important (the user could maybe 
+use `[email protected]` or ask the `@angular/cli` dev team to relax its
+constraints on typescript), but there could be cases where a nested dependency introduces a bug and the project developper would want to set a specific
+version for it (see for example this
+[comment](https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/2763#issuecomment-302682844)).
+
+## Related scenario (out of scope of this document)
+
+An extension of this motivation is also the potential need for mapping nested dependencies to others. For example a project developper could want to map `typescript@>=2.0.0 <2.3.0` to `[email protected]`.
+
+See alternatives solutions below also.
+
+# Detailed design
+
+The proposed solution is to make the `resolutions` field of the `package.json`
+file to be considered all the time and on a per-package basis.
+
+When a nested dependency is being resolved by yarn, if the `resolutions` field
+contains a version for this package, then this version is used instead.
+
+All the examples are given with exact dependencies, but note that putting a
+non-exact specification in the `resolutions` field should be accepted and
+resolved by yarn like it usually does.
+
+## Example
+
+For example with:
+```json
+ "devDependencies": {
+    "@angular/cli": "1.0.3"
+  },
+  "resolutions": {
+    "typescript": "2.3.2"
+  }
+```
+
+yarn will use `[email protected]` for every nested dependency to `typescript`
+and will behave as expected with respect to the `node_modules` folder by not
+duplicating typescript installation.
+
+## Relation to non-nest dependencies
+
+The `devDependencies` and `dependencies` fields always take precedence over the
+`resolutions` field: if the user defines explicitely a dependency there,
+it means that he wants that version, even if it's specified with a non-exact
+specification. So the `resolutions` field only applies to nested-dependencies.
+
+## Relation to the `--flat` option
+
+The `--flat` option becomes thus a way to populate the resolutions field for
+the whole project, as it already does.
+But the `resolutions` field is always considered by yarn, even if `--flat` is
+not specified.
+
+Inceidently, this resolves this strange situation when two developers would be
+working on the same project, and one is using `--flat` while the other is not,
+and they would get different `node_modules` contents because of that.
+
+## `yarn.lock`
+
+This design implies that it is possible to have for a given version
+specification (e.g., `>=2.0.0 <2.3.0`) a resolved version that is incompatible
+with it (e.g., `2.3.2`).
+It is acceptable as long as it is explicitly asked by the user.
+
+It is currently the case that such situation would make yarn unhappy and
+provoke the modification of the `yarn.lock` (see 
+[yarnpkg/yarn#3420](https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/3420)).
+
+This feature would remove the need for this behaviour of yarn.
+
+## Warnings in logs
+
+yarn would need to warn about the following situations:
+- Unused resolutions
+- Incompatible resolutions: see the above section about `yarn.lock`.
+Incompatible resolutions should be accepted but warned about since it could
+lead to unwanted behaviour.
+- ? (see open questions below)
+
+# How We Teach This
+
+This won't have much impact as it extends the current behaviour by adding
+functionality.
+
+The only breaking change is that `resolutions` is being considered all the time,
+but that won't surprise people, this will make yarn behaviour simply more
+consistent than before (see the comment on `--flat` above).
+
+The term "resolution" has the same meaning as before, but it is not under the
+sole control of yarn itself anymore, but also under the control of the user
+now.
+
+This is an advanced use of yarn, so new users don't really have to know about
+it in the beginning.
+
+# Drawbacks
+
+## Teaching
+
+It makes yarn behaviour a bit more complex, even though more useful. So it
+can be difficult for users to wrap their head around it. The RFC submitter has
+seen it happen many times with maven, which is quite complex but complete in
+its dependency management. Users would get confused and it can take time to
+understand the implications of manipulation the `resolutions` field (even
+though, the chosen solution, compared to the alternatives below, is much
+simpler).
+
+## Package management paradigm
+
+Yarn and npm users are highly used to the idea that a dependency can be
+present many times in the `node_module`, depending on which package needs it.
+This has advantages and inconvenients, but it is one of the specificity of the
+npm ecosystem package management.
+
+In this light, taking such as design decision puts yarn a bit farther to such
+way of doing thing, and it could be considered a bad direction to go toward.
+
+Some of the alternatives below actually take this into consideration, but are
+a bit more complex in terms of expressivity, so were not chosen by the RFC
+submitter (see open questions below too).
+
+# Alternatives
+
+There is at least one alternative to the proposed solution, more complex but
+more expressive.
+
+## Nested dependencies resolution per dependency
+
+Starting from an example, this solution would take the following form in the
+`package.json` file:
+```json
+  "devDependencies": {
+    "@angular/cli": "1.0.3",
+    "typescript": "2.3.2"
+  },
+  "resolutions": {
+    "@angular/cli": {
+      "typescript": "2.0.2"
+    }
+  }
+```
+
+yarn would use `[email protected]` only for `@angular/cli` (so in
+`node_modules/@angular/cli/node_modules`), but keep `[email protected]` in
+`node_modules/typescript`.
+
+Basically, this enables the user to specify versions for nested dependencies,
+but only in the context of a given dependency.
+
+The fields of the `resolutions` field must only refer to existing entries in
+`devDependencies` and `dependencies`.
+
+Of course, if the same version of a nested dependency is used for many
+dependencies, yarn will behave as always by keeping it directly in
+`node_modules`.
+
+## Mapping version specifications
+
+This is a kind of simplified solution to the "out-of-scope scenario" in the
+motivations section above (it maps versions but not dependency names).
+
+It was proposed in this
+[comment](https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/2763#issuecomment-301896274).
+
+Everything is not totally clear to me, but the idea would be to map a given
+version specification to another one.
+This would take this form in the `package.json`:
+```json
+"devDependencies": {
+    "@angular/cli": "1.0.3",
+    "typescript": "2.2.2",
+    "more dependencies..."
+  },
+  "mappings": {
+    "typescript@>=2.0.0 <2.3.0": "[email protected]"
+  }
+```
+
+yarn would then replace matching version specifications with the user's one.
+What is problematic with this is that the user has to know that `@angular/cli`
+is exactly expressing its dependency to `typescript` as `>=2.0.0 <2.3.0`.
+
+This makes such mappings hard to maintain because they can become ignored if
+`@angular/cli` is upgraded and its dependency specification changes, while
+the other solutions would only result in 
+
+# Unresolved questions
+
+## Is this expressive enough?
+
+As explained in the alternative solutions section, it would be much more
+expressive and coherent with the npm ecosystem package management paradigm
+to use nested dependency resolutions per project dependency.
+Would the loss of simplicity acceptable maybe?
+
+## Warnings in logs
+
+Should yarn warn the user about an incoherence between an explicit dependency
+and a resolution. For example if the user specify a dependency to
+`[email protected]` and the resolutions field contains `[email protected]`.
+For sure if the above alternative solution is chosen, this wouldn't make sense.
+
+Should we warn if a resolutions is incompatible, but still upper-bounded?
+For example, forcing version `[email protected]` while a dependency needs version `[email protected]` is
+usually less problematic than forcing version `[email protected]` while a dependency needs
+version `[email protected]`.
+The problem with differentiating these situations is that yarn to start giving
+lots of semantics to versions and it can give false certainty to the user than
+a problematic situation is not problematic. So it may be better to always warn
+about incompatible resolutions.