How use npm install --build-from-source in pnpm

[v9u]

How use npm install --build-from-source in pnpm?
I need use sqlite3 in Electron,like this:
npm install sqlite3 --build-from-source --runtime=electron --target=18.2.1 --dist-url=https://electronjs.org/headers
but pnpm install sqlite3 -- --build-from-source --runtime=electron --target=18.2.1 --dist-url=https://electronjs.org/headers is not work

Electron Sqlite3 Install Details
pnpm : 7.17.0
node : v16.15.1
electron: v19.07

[polnikale]

any answer?

[dgtllion]

I'm facing the same problem. Is there any update? 2 years later...

[phiresky]

@polnikale @dgtllion

I have found the simplest solution to be to use pnpm patch <package-name> to directly patch the arguments you want into into the dependency (wherever appropriate). For example, arguments you could directly add to the dependency's package.json. file.

It's not beautiful, but that way you guarantee that the arguments are passed to the build script directly when running pnpm install, no other steps needed!

[Galadirith]

Since this discussion is one of the top Google results when searching for installing packages from source using pnpm, I wanted to share my related issue and eventual solution. Noting that my issue is only related to the title issue of --build-from-source. Unfortunately I do not have a solution to the other additional CLI options, and specifically targeting an electron runtime.

I had a problem with installing sqlite3 on an Apple Silicon Mac. Specifically I was unable to use pnpm to install n8n because it was silently failing to correctly install the sqlite3 dependency because there are no prebuild binaries for Apple Silicon because of the resolution issues with the arm {arch} as detailed in the node-sqlite3 README.

In the end my solution was to install a tagged version from GitHub (https://pnpm.io/cli/add)

pnpm add github:TryGhost/node-sqlite3#v5.1.7

This forces a build from source because you are adding a source dependency. You will likely be prompted to approve a build from source

╭ Warning ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│                                                                                            │
│   Ignored build scripts: sqlite3.                                                          │
│   Run "pnpm approve-builds" to pick which dependencies should be allowed to run scripts.   │
│                                                                                            │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

which you can follow and do

pnpm approve-builds

which will then prompt you with sqlite3 as a build that needs approval, which you can authorise, and then done. You might need to rerun the pnpm add github... command, I am not sure if it is necessary, I spent the extra 10s to rerun just incase it was needed. Then finally

pnpx n8n

now works. This of course means you can't use nicer features like upgrading packages, you would have to manually check and modify the github deps. In my case that is perfectly acceptable, but understandable if that isn't for others.

I do not have any recent experience working with electron, and certainly none attempting to use pnpm to manage dependencies for an electron project. But for whatever it is worth my own reflection is that pnpm is really valuable when you need to manage dependencies for node runtime projects (where you might have 10+ projects all referencing a similar set of dependencies), but less useful when you want to manage dependencies for electron runtime projects (where you might only have 1-2 electron runtime projects). I think Why You Should Use npm (and Not pnpm... Yet) to Build Electron + React + Vite + Tailwind Apps summarises the problems you might encounter. pnpm seems very much built to replace npm for node runtimes, so incompatibilities seems likely, even before trying to deal with building from source. I am sure there are good reasons why it is valuable using pnpm for electron apps that I am not aware of, but maybe it's worth considering if you want to spend the time and deal with potential hacky solutions to make pnpm work with dep management for an electron app, over npm that might not have the additional desirable features of pnpm but npm is (more) likely to just work, and spend the saved time building some great electron apps 😌