build file inside of package prevents dependency installation

[vmax]

While migrating electron project to be built by bazel and use rules_nodejs (any link to successful migration will be appreciated!), I encountered an issue, which is reproducible with this simple example:

WORKSPACE:

git_repository(
    name = "build_bazel_rules_nodejs",
    remote = "https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs.git",
    commit = "173d858483b3dbbc0d7c8a05eb4a0f0e1285f0b3",
)

load("@build_bazel_rules_nodejs//:package.bzl", "rules_nodejs_dependencies")
rules_nodejs_dependencies()

load("@build_bazel_rules_nodejs//:defs.bzl", "node_repositories")
node_repositories(
	package_json = ["//:package.json"]
)

load("@build_bazel_rules_nodejs//:defs.bzl", "npm_install")
npm_install(
    name = "npm",
    package_json = "//:package.json",
    package_lock_json = "//:package-lock.json",
)

package.json:

{
	"dependencies": {
		"humanize-plus": "^1.8.2"
	}
}

package-lock.json can be generated by npm i, BUILD file is empty

Then, running bazel query @npm//... results in an error:

RROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:9:1: invalid character: '$'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:9:3: invalid character: '$'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:9:14: invalid character: '&'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:9:16: syntax error at '/': expected expression

ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:10:7: invalid character: '$'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:10:8: invalid character: '?'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:10:14: syntax error at '0': expected ',', 'for' or ']'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:11:4: indentation error
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:11:18: invalid character: '$'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:11:20: invalid character: '$'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:12:8: invalid character: '$'
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:12:9: syntax error at 'PROJECT_ROOT': expected newline
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:12:21: syntax error at 'outdent': expected expression
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:10:1: if statements are not allowed in BUILD files. You may move conditional logic to a function definition (in a .bzl file), or for simple cases use an if expression.
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:9:16: contains syntax error(s)
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:10:5: contains syntax error(s)
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:11:4: contains syntax error(s)
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:12:5: name 'cd' is not defined
ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_vmax/b34e8677dff10fd1251bb3d7a93c6664/external/npm/node_modules/humanize-plus/bin/BUILD:12:21: contains syntax error(s)
ERROR: error loading package '@npm//node_modules/humanize-plus/bin': Package 'node_modules/humanize-plus/bin' contains errors

humanize-plus/bin/build can be seen here

[lolski]

Are those BUILD files supposed to be Bazel BUILD files or just a regular file which happens to be called BUILD? I had a similar issue where I had to clean the node_modules folder before re-running Bazel.

[haikalpribadi]

That's exactly the issue @lolski - node_modules/ is something that is generated when building a node application. If that folder contains BUILD files (not from Bazel), then it gets in the way of our Bazel build execution.

[bugzpodder]

I think bazel has some ignore rules you can work with.

[haikalpribadi]

Where can we find documentation for this @bugzpodder ? Thank you!

[Toxicable]

.bazelignore would be the one yopu want

[bugzpodder]

Yep, https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/guide.html#.bazelignore
there is also the deleted_packaged flag: bazelbuild/bazel#4888 (comment)

[alexeagle]

.bazelignore is meant to ignore files that appear in your own source tree.
our general approach is to delete BUILD and BUILD.bazel files we find in the node_modules so that Bazel doesn't try to act on them as it does here.
https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs/blob/master/internal/npm_install/generate_build_file.js#L169-L172
I think the bug is that if the filesystem is case-insensitive then we also need to make that comparison case-insensitive.