node-dtrace-provider should be an optionalDependency

[isaacs]

Restify is a great platform. It's a shame that it can't be used on Windows or Linux.

Possible workaround: port dtrace to Linux and Windows.

Also acceptable: list dtrace as an optional dependency, and don't use it if it's not available.

[mcavage]

Yep, this is the 3rd or 4th time this has come up. dtrace-provider is available on linux (I had patched it with a bunch of #ifdef's), but not windows. I will look into the optionalDependency trick and stubbing it out internally.

[mcavage]

To work smoothly with npm install restify, this will require npm 1.1.5, as that will take new action on the optionalDependencies block, whereby npm will still install restify successfully, even if node-waf ... fails. In this case, we'd have an installed restify without a dtrace dependency. The code change then just attempts to load dtrace, assuming it might fail, and in the cases it does fail, just creates a stub. This should solve both windows and the heroku et al cases.

[mcavage]

Resolving this.

[mypark]

Isn't the latest version of npm 1.1.4? I tried npm update npm and got only 1.1.4.

[isaacs]

@mypark Yes. npm 1.1.5 will come out soon to address the shortcoming here.

[ryancole]

I just wanted to ask about this issue. I am seeing the following error message from restify ...

λ ~/projects/raidboss/api/src/ node
> var restify = require('restify');
undefined
> var server = restify.createServer();
[Error: Cannot find module './DTraceProviderBindings']
undefined

... using npm version 1.1.12, and restify version 1.3.0. It looks like I can continue using restify, despite that message. Is this what was changed with npm version 1.1.5? Did previous versions cause this to error out completely? Or, am I still seeing this error as it was originally reported for this issue? I just want to be sure to be clear what it is I am seeing.

Thanks.

[mcavage]

Hi Ryan,

So what changed was that as an optionalDependency, NPM won't blow up
running npm install restify on platforms where it doesn't compile
(Windows, and some flavors of Linux). The installation of DTrace
will fail, but npm will ignore it. Restify has always treated as
"I'll try to load it, and if it fails to load, I'll stub it out".
That error message (to stderr, right?) is from node, not restify,
barfing that it can't load the binary dependency (i.e., you're on a
platform where it partially installed). There's a try/catch around
it in restify, and it's ignored. I believe in the latest commits in
master, I made it stop spitting out to stderr.

tl;dr, npm let you install, it's not really there, it whines on
stderr, restify keeps going fine.

m

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 4:44 PM, Ryan Cole
[email protected]
wrote:

I just wanted to ask about this issue. I am seeing the following error message from restify ...

λ ~/projects/raidboss/api/src/ node
> var restify = require('restify');
undefined
> var server = restify.createServer();
[Error: Cannot find module './DTraceProviderBindings']
undefined

... using npm version 1.1.12, and restify version 1.3.0. It looks like I can continue using restify, despite that message. Is this what was changed with npm version 1.1.5? Did previous versions cause this to error out completely? Or, am I still seeing this error as it was originally reported for this issue? I just want to be sure to be clear what it is I am seeing.

Thanks.

---

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#100 (comment)

[hoffmanc]

@mcavage: I am seeing the same thing on heroku still...

2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]: [Error: Cannot find module './DTraceProviderBindings']
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]: 
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]: events.js:48
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]:         throw arguments[1]; // Unhandled 'error' event
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]:                        ^
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]: Error: ENOENT, open 'log/server.log'

[mcavage]

Are you sure that error is actually from this? (that log makes it
look like your error is from the server log...).

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 8:13 PM, Chris Hoffman
[email protected]
wrote:

@mcavage: I am seeing the same thing on heroku still...

2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]: [Error: Cannot find module './DTraceProviderBindings']
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]:
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]: events.js:48
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]:         throw arguments[1]; // Unhandled 'error' event
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]:                        ^
2012-04-17T03:08:33+00:00 app[web.1]: Error: ENOENT, open 'log/server.log'

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#100 (comment)

[hoffmanc]

@mcavage: you're probably right. Sorry.

[mcavage]

No worries. The [Error: ...] thing is from stderr, as opposed to it
actually being an error (I do realize the ironic non-helpfulness of
that...).

m

On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Chris Hoffman
[email protected]
wrote:

@mcavage: you're probably right.  Sorry.

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#100 (comment)

[hoffmanc]

@mcavage : The problem was related to a file log, and arbitrary file writing is a no-no for Heroku. Thanks for pointing out the obvious, original problem

[gagle]

I'm on windows. I don't have dtrace. I don't have python. All I want is to install restify but I can't. It says that I don't have python, therefore I can't compile because dtrace tries to compile with node-gyp...

[kenorb]

Reinstalling from http://nodejs.org/download/ helps.
Then: npm install dtrace-provider