Pass node source to node-gyp with pnpm 11

[Scrumplex]

Since pnpm 11, only a limited set of environment variables are passed to lifecycle scripts. See https://pnpm.io/scripts#environment-variables

I am trying to build a project that uses re2 in a sandboxed/air-gapped environment. In previous versions, I would just set npm_config_nodedir to my local clone of the Node.js source, to allow node-gyp to build without internet access. Due to pnpm 11 filtering these environmnt variables, this does not work anymore.

I thought I could use a package patch to inject this using a custom env var, but that obviously doesn't scale well.

I think it should be possible to configure an allowlist for these kinds of environment variables.

[mg1986jp]

You can set it in .npmrc instead of relying on the environment variable:

# .npmrc
nodedir=/path/to/your/node/source

pnpm (and npm) reads .npmrc settings directly, so this bypasses the env var filtering entirely. npm_config_nodedir was always just the environment variable form of the .npmrc nodedir setting — same thing, different mechanism.

If you need it per-project, put the .npmrc in the project root. If you need it machine-wide in your air-gapped environment, put it in ~/.npmrc.

For the broader question about an env var allowlist: there's pnpm.executionEnv in package.json but it's for specifying the Node version, not for arbitrary env passthrough. A custom allowlist doesn't exist yet — you'd need to open a feature request for that.

[Scrumplex]

Seems like .npmrc doesn't work either :/

For reference: I am running echo nodedir=/path/to/node/include/node | tee -a .npmrc in project root before any pnpm command is run.

The /path/to/node looks like this: https://gist.github.com/Scrumplex/7cf873586eb6815cce760f26fbdb892a#file-nodedir-tree-txt

The full log of my build is also attached in the gist.

Not sure how to solve this without resorting to patching my dependency (re2)

[Scrumplex]

To make sure that I didn't make a mistake in my build script, I also tried to same approach with pnpm 10 and replacing my environment variable with an entry in <project-root>/.npmrc works.

[Scrumplex]

My workaround is to use a pnpm patch to pass --nodedir to node-gyp at the moment. At the same time I am evaluating --use-prefix-to-find-headers as a configure flag to nodejs within nixpkgs to solve this for all consumers of nodejs and node-gyp in nixpkgs.

[LJAYi]

It looks like pnpm 11.20.0 now provides a project-level way around this, without patching re2.

You can use the .pnpmfile.cjs updateConfig hook to put the variable into extraEnv:

// .pnpmfile.cjs
module.exports = {
  hooks: {
    updateConfig(config) {
      config.extraEnv = {
        ...config.extraEnv,
        npm_config_nodedir: '/path/to/node',
      }
      return config
    },
  },
}

Use the same nodedir value that worked in your pnpm 10 environment, then rerun the dependency build, for example:

pnpm rebuild re2

extraEnv is specifically passed to lifecycle commands, so this avoids relying on the ambient variables filtered by pnpm 11. The v11.20.0 source includes a test for this exact npm_config_nodedir use case: update_config_can_set_extra_env.

So the important version check is:

pnpm --version

This needs pnpm 11.20.0 or newer. On an older pnpm 11 release, your current patch or an explicit --nodedir is still needed.