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0 pointsnotatoad8y ago0 comments

A "house of cards" implies that you don't have to dig to topple it. If you have to really dig down into how it's put together in order to start pulling it apart it isn't really a house of cards.

I don't use npm or node for anything serious, and i don't really have any knowledge of how NPM works, but this isn't the first time i've read this story of a whole bunch of packages disappearing and everybody's builds breaking. If everything is a house of cards, then why don't i hear the same stories about PyPI or gems or crates?

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7 comments · 4 top-level

lioeters8y ago· 2 in thread

It reminds me of this article, Everything is Broken. Perhaps a house of cards becomes solid architecture through the test of time..?

https://medium.com/message/everything-is-broken-81e5f33a24e1

sebazzz8y ago

The issues with the NPM Registry are not technical but management issues and decisions not properly thought through.

zbentley8y ago

As of this writing, aren't we still waiting to see what the problem was inside NPM that caused this user's packages to disappear?

It might well have been technical. It might well have been managerial. It very likely involved elements of both. But don't you think it's best to save the Monday morning quarterbacking for Monday morning, when all the facts are in?

borntyping8y ago· 1 in thread

> If everything is a house of cards, then why don't i hear the same stories about PyPI or gems or crates?

npm is roughly twice as big as PyPI, RubyGems and crates.io together.

heartbreak8y ago

Disappearing packages due to a deleted user is not an issue of scale.

christophilus8y ago

I can't speak for PyPI, but I know Ruby gems has had vulnerabilities in the past. A quick DuckDuckGo will probably suffice to demonstrate that. I'm not saying NPM is a great system, but it does seem to me that most systems have flaws, and any system that is as heavily used as NPM is likely to have them surface faster than other systems.

rmrfrmrf8y ago

Because when you’re on top, everyone loves seeing you fail.

A quick CVE search pulled up 18 vulnerabilities in RubyGems, including remote code execution.

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