Why is pnpm dlx <package>@latest not bypassing cache?

[devjiwonchoi]

From this PR #7835 pnpm dlx is enabled with cache for a DAY, but when we run a package with @latest, we expect to fetch the latest package.

1. Is there a reason why we are using cache even with @latest?
2. How can we workaround this behavior? (within the script)

[AlphaFoxz]

Same problem.
And here is an example to show how counter-intuitive it is.

Step 1: Execute an example package

$ pnpm info create-example@latest
# Got latest: 0.0.1
$ pnpm dlx create-example # or pnpm create example@latest

Now, we installed [email protected] into [cache-dir]

Step 2: Update example package

Modify create-example's version to 0.0.2. Then publish.

Step 3: Execute the example package with newer, exact version

$ pnpm dlx [email protected] # or pnpm create [email protected]

This time v0.0.2 be installed into [cache-dir]

Step 4: Try execute example@latest

$ pnpm dlx create-example@latest # or pnpm create example@latest

Finally, the process [email protected] will be executed again. Even both v0.0.1 and v0.0.2 are all cached.

[zkochan]

but when we run a package with @latest, we expect to fetch the latest package.

I have no idea what is expected. One of the most upvoted issues was to make dlx fast by using a cache.

Any addition rules will make it slower. You can always run it with an exact version. I doubt it is a frequent scenario.

This should currently work to skip cache:

pnpm --config.dlx-cache-max-age=0 dlx ...

cc @KSXGitHub

[KSXGitHub]

We can skip cache entirely should a single @latest is found in packages list. It does mean that dlx pkg@latest will always be slow, but the user should know what they are doing anyway.

[AlphaFoxz]

We can skip cache entirely should a single @latest is found in packages list. It does mean that dlx pkg@latest will always be slow, but the user should know what they are doing anyway.

There is another problem comes with it: @latest perhaps parse as older cached version in my example.
Is possible to parse @latest as newer version when install newer version ?

My opinion:

If pkg-name@latest == [email protected] because of cache
and [email protected] has latest tag
When the command pnpm dlx [email protected] created new cache, @latest could be parsed to @0.0.2
Otherwise, @latest always refers specifically to @0.0.1, it's kind of wired.

[KSXGitHub]

#8722