when builder is symlinked, environment causes TypeScript compiler to fork bomb about builder

[ryan-roemer]

LOCAL_DEV isn't meant to be used as a normal thing. Symlinks are going to be problematic for many things with builder. Your best bet is to probably look into https://github.com/FormidableLabs/lank#readme and see if there's a lank config that can get everything to work (note that it will conflict with symlink approach if same package at issue). Good luck!

[trusktr]

Interesting, thanks for sharing lank. It's interesting that it takes a different approach than symlinking; I haven't seen any other tools take that approach.

Another problem is that even though LOCAL_DEV is set, it seems to work only with the main archetype, but the variable does not have any effect on resolution of *-dev archetypes so all the same problems persist in any project using a -dev archetype regardless of that variable. I.e., the same problems as main archetypes without LOCAL_DEV being set, happen with -dev archetypes regardless of that variable being set or not.

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For now, my new workaround is to simply make a package that provides a bin, and using commander to set up command like my-cli build and my-cli test, etc, that simply call functions with the equivalent names exported from a config file overridable/extendable by each project. This does not rely on mangling PATH or any env variables, its just runtime functions.

Regardless of this workaround for executing common tooling across projects, I think lank might be useful. I'll have to try that to see how it compares with other tools that symlink. Do you think the lack of symlinks will help builder operate as usual? If so, then maybe I don't need to implement my workaround.

[trusktr]

Oops, I forgot to push the reproduction branch I mentioned in the OP, so I pushed it up in case someone ever wants to try to reproduce it.