cross-env not found on gitlab production but works on staging

Question

I use gitlab CI to deploy vuejs app. For staging, everything works great. I copy paste the same configuration for production and I have :

$ npm run build
> cross-env NODE_ENV=production && vue-cli-service build
sh: 1: cross-env: not found

Here is the .yml file :

build-prod:
  stage: build-prod
  image: node:latest
  variables:
    NODE_ENV: production
  rules:
    # only run on master builds, we'll deal with branch builds next
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'
      when: on_success
    - when: never
  script:
    - node --version
    - npm --version
    - ls
    - cd front
    - ls
    - npm install -g @vue/cli-service@latest
    - rm -rf node_modules
    - npm install
    - npm install cross-env
    - npm run build <----------------------------------- Error here
    - ls

I also tried to manually clean cache on gitlab but no effect.

In staging steps are exactly the same and everything works, how can I deal with it ?

Answer 1

Why do you not install cross-env globally?

npm install --global cross-env

I successfully tested this solution with the node:latest image, the same you're using in the CI:

$ podman run --rm -it docker.io/node:latest bash
root@35ac5bda21eb:/# node --version
v16.12.0
root@35ac5bda21eb:/# npm --version
8.1.0
root@35ac5bda21eb:/# cross-env
bash: cross-env: command not found
root@35ac5bda21eb:/# export NODE_ENV=production
root@35ac5bda21eb:/# npm install --global cross-env

added 7 packages, and audited 8 packages in 1s

found 0 vulnerabilities
npm notice 
npm notice New patch version of npm available! 8.1.0 -> 8.1.1
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v8.1.1
npm notice Run npm install -g [email protected] to update!
npm notice 
root@35ac5bda21eb:/# which cross-env
/usr/local/bin/cross-env