Usage Error: Couldn't find the node_modules state file - running an install might help (findPackageLocation)

Question

Prior to cloning the substrate-front-end-template repo with tag "monthly-2022-02" I installed the following since I was building it from a Dockerfile using pre-built Docker image node:gallium-alpine:

• Yarn 1.22.19 (running yarn --version outputs 1.22.19). This was bundled with node:gallium-alpine pre-built Docker image.
• Node.js LTS v16.18.1 (matching contents of .nvmrc that includes lts/gallium and since the CircleCI .circleci/config.yml file is using Node.js 16.14)

But it appeared as though the repository required Yarn 3.1.1 (hence why there is a .yarn folder containing .yarn/releases/yarn-3.1.1.cjs, package.json contains "packageManager": "[email protected]", and a file called .yarnrc.yml whose contents include:

nodeLinker: node-modules

plugins:
  - path: .yarn/plugins/@yarnpkg/plugin-interactive-tools.cjs
    spec: "@yarnpkg/plugin-interactive-tools"

yarnPath: .yarn/releases/yarn-3.1.1.cjs

But after you clone the repo and try to install dependencies with yarn it outputs error:

Usage Error: Couldn't find the node_modules state file - running an install might help (findPackageLocation)

Answer 1

Resolving the issue involved upgrading to Yarn 3.1.1 before running yarn. Followed these Yarn instructions to install its Corepack and the latest Yarn 3.1.1.

If I didn't correctly re-create the .yarnrc.yml file to include plugins and nodeLinker before running yarn then I would get error: TypeError: semantic-ui-css@Semantic-Org/Semantic-UI-CSS#master: Cannot set properties of undefined (setting 'message').

Since we are using Yarn 3.x we still need to explicitly import plugins like interactive-tools into the file. It is also necessary to have nodeLinker: <VALUE> in the file. So re-creating it as follows in the Dockerfile worked to adequately switch to Yarn 3.1.1 first and also resolved the error Usage Error: Couldn't find the node_modules state file - running an install might help (findPackageLocation), so it wasn't necessary to first have to copy across the /.yarn folder and .yarnrc.yml file from the host machine before running yarn (i.e. yarn install).

FROM node:gallium-alpine

WORKDIR /app
ENV PATH=/app/node_modules/.bin:$PATH

COPY package.json .
RUN printf "Pre-built Docker image using built-in Yarn version: "; yarn --version

# it was necessary to install Git first since it uses that dependency
RUN apk update && apk add --update git && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*
RUN corepack enable \
    && corepack prepare yarn@stable --activate \
    && yarn set version 3.1.1 \
    && yarn plugin import interactive-tools \
    && echo -e "nodeLinker: node-modules\n\n$(cat /app/.yarnrc.yml)" > /app/.yarnrc.yml \
    && cat /app/.yarnrc.yml \
    && printf "Switched to Yarn version: "; yarn --version \
    && yarn install

Note: It would also work with Yarn 3.3.0 if the appropriate files were updated.

Reference: https://github.com/substrate-developer-hub/substrate-front-end-template/issues/259