Why call npm pack on _release folder?

[jchavarri]

Out of curiosity. I saw there was a zip in the Release artifact with the same contents as the release itself, which is produced by this script:

hello-reason/.ci/cross-release.yml

Lines 26 to 28 in 84194dc

	- script: "npm pack ."
	displayName: "npm pack"
	workingDirectory: "_release"

I wonder why that's needed? I personally prefer to have just the folder with the ready-made package, having exclusively the required files to publish.

cc @ulrikstrid

[ulrikstrid]

It's easier to test that the package worked since you can then publish the package and try to install it on all the platforms as the last step in the pipeline

[jchavarri]

I see, thanks for clarifying.

In that case, shouldn't that last step be included in the repo to serve as example? Right now, the pipeline setup seems to assume manual publishing, which then requires remembering to remove the zip file manually every time.

[jordwalke]

I think that we actually want to just have the pipelines publish the final packed package, not the outer one. Good catch. PRs welcomed, otherwise I'll eventually get to this.

[jordwalke]

(Packing also strips out other files that are npmignored iirc so I think that might have been one reason).