npm ERR! cb() never called!

[moltar]

I know this is not directly under this action's control, but I am raising it here, in case there is some effect.

I'm getting the following error intermittently:

Run bahmutov/npm-install@v1
  with:
running npm-install GitHub Action
trying to restore cached NPM modules
npm cache hit undefined
installing NPM dependencies
npm at "/opt/hostedtoolcache/node/14.17.0/x64/bin/npm"
/opt/hostedtoolcache/node/14.17.0/x64/bin/npm ci
npm ERR! cb() never called!

npm ERR! This is an error with npm itself. Please report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://npm.community>

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/runner/.npm/_logs/2021-06-19T10_45_41_566Z-debug.log
Error: The process '/opt/hostedtoolcache/node/14.17.0/x64/bin/npm' failed with exit code 1
    at ExecState._setResult (/home/runner/work/_actions/bahmutov/npm-install/v1/dist/index.js:969:25)
    at ExecState.CheckComplete (/home/runner/work/_actions/bahmutov/npm-install/v1/dist/index.js:952:18)
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/bahmutov/npm-install/v1/dist/index.js:846:27)
    at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:210:5)
    at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:1021:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:283:5)
Error: The process '/opt/hostedtoolcache/node/14.17.0/x64/bin/npm' failed with exit code 1

Any clues?

[YenHub]

This sounds more like an issue with your dependencies, something doesn't appear to like version 14.17.0

[moltar]

It happens in CI only though, and randomly without any pattern.

[YenHub]

Is your package-lock commited to your repository?

Feel free to share a link and I can take a peek ☺️

[moltar]

Is your package-lock commited to your repository?

Yeah!

Feel free to share a link and I can take a peek ☺️

It's a private repo :(

But I think I've had it happen on the public ones too, when/if it does, I will share the link here.

Any other debug steps I can take?

[Tallyb]

I get this often as well. Pkg-lock is committed, and occasionally I would get it.
Some things to notice, though:

• Multiple jobs exist in the same workflow, all with the same action, and occasionally one will fail while the other succeed to run npm i.
• Rerunning the job can often fix the issue
• It happens after a change in the pkg lock, e.g. upgrading / installing a new package.
  I think it is related to not properly hitting cache, while other jobs are getting the cache properly.
  Hope this helps and can shed some light.

[moltar]

Yup what @Tallyb said. Same scenario exactly.

[Tallyb]

This seems to happen when there are multiple jobs running in parallel. My analysis is as follow:
Change made to pkg-lock
In all jobs, cache hits undefined (since the pkg-lock changed)
It installs and tries to create the new cache file.
BUT there are multiple jobs that do the same - one succeeds and the others fail, as it already exists