[BUG] Why is `npm` run writing into the `.npm/_logs` directory or creating it?

[JJ]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

npm run is creating if it does not exist and writing if it exists into the .npm/_logs directory.

Expected Behavior

Even if logs are turned off completely with the --logs-max=0 option, the directory is still created. This calls for workarounds if the current directory is not writable (a relatively common scenario if you're working inside a container) or workarounds, but there is apparently no way to turn it off completely.

Steps To Reproduce

This Dockerfile:

FROM node:21-alpine

RUN mkdir -p /app/test && chown -R node:node /app && npm install -g npm@latest

USER node

WORKDIR /app

COPY package.json ./

WORKDIR /app/test

ENTRYPOINT ["npm", "--logs-max=0", "run", "test"]

With this package.json

{
  "name": "dotnpm-created",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Test file",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"test\""
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC"
}

When run with:

podman run --rm -it -v `pwd`:/app/test -u 1001 jjmerelo/dotnpm-test

It creates a .npm file with:

.npm:
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3  101000 jmerelo 4096 nov 28 14:38 .
drwxrwxr-x 3 jmerelo jmerelo 4096 nov 28 14:38 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2  101000 jmerelo 4096 nov 28 14:38 _logs

.npm/_logs:
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 101000 jmerelo 4096 nov 28 14:38 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 101000 jmerelo 4096 nov 28 14:38 ..

So it still has an empty log directory.

Environment

• npm@10.2.4
• node@v21.2.0
• Alpine OS
• npm config:

; node bin location = /usr/local/bin/node
; node version = v21.2.0
; npm local prefix = /app
; npm version = 10.2.4
; cwd = /app/test
; HOME = /home/node

[wraithgar]

silent should not affect the log files at all, that is only a directive to npm on what it sends to stdout.