package.json keeps my pnpm version artificially old

[hyperknot]

1. I go to any repo, with package.json
2. I run pnpm i
3. It adds this "packageManager": "pnpm@9.10.0+sha512...." line
4. From now on: it keeps annoying me with the "Please update pnpm with corepack" notice AND it doesn't get updated.

By "doesn't get updated" I mean that even though I've updated my pnpm to the latest version, when I go inside that directory, it reports it as 9.10, not as 9.15.

Even though I'm running on the very same binary file!

Outside the project repo:

/Users/user/.nvm/versions/node/v20.17.0/bin/pnpm --version
9.15.1

Inside the project repo:

/Users/user/.nvm/versions/node/v20.17.0/bin/pnpm --version
9.10.0

This is extremely buggy / confusing like this. How can the same binary file have multiple versions?

[zkochan]

We do not add the packageManager field when it isn't present. corepack adds it. If you want to disable this behaviour of corepack, you may set the COREPACK_ENABLE_AUTO_PIN environment variable to 0.

[hyperknot]

Thanks, great to know. And what about the super strange --version behaviour? How can one binary file report multiple versions when called with --version?

[zkochan]

The project has "packageManager": "pnpm@9.10.0+sha512...." field, so it makes sense that --version inside the project shows 9.10.0. corepack automatically switches to the version of pnpm requested by the project. If you want to use a new version of pnpm with that project, you should update the packageManager field.

[hyperknot]

I'd understand this, if there were multiple pnpm installations like /Users/user/.nvm/versions/node/v20.17.0/bin/pnpm@19.10.0/pnpm or similar. But there is one single file, which is reporting different versions based on where it's called from.

[zkochan]

I don't know how it operates in your setup but it works by the spec. Maybe /Users/user/.nvm/versions/node/v20.17.0/bin/pnpm@19.10.0/pnpm is in your PATH, that is why it runs first, then it reads the field in package.json and switches to the right version, which is not in the PATH.