Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'env')

[NathanWalker]

Issue Description

While running a project you may run into this error:

Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'env')

Reproduction

No response

Relevant log output (if applicable)

No response

Environment

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Please accept these terms

• I have searched the existing issues as well as StackOverflow and this has not been posted before
• This is a bug report
• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[NathanWalker]

This appears related to a recent transient npm dependency that some plugins may rely on. To resolve, add this dependency to your package.json, then ns clean:

"qs": "npm:querystring@^0.2.1"

[Adelrisk]

Thanks for this problem description and solution. Unfortunately, I don't understand the solution. It seems very unconventional.

It appears that the package qs should be resolved with the npm package querystring in the (semantically equivalent) version ^0.2.1. However, I can't find a package with that name. What may I have misunderstood?

[rigor789]

@Adelrisk

"qs": "npm:querystring@^0.2.1"

will install the querystring@^0.2.1 package but alias/name it as qs (so it will be in node_modules/qs/). It's definitely a workaround until a cleaner/better solution is found (we're still thinking about it, as we want something that will work long-term).

[Adelrisk]

The real confusion arose because the npm API (both web and cli) hides the package from all searches (https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=querystring and npm search "querystring" respectively), probably because it has been deprecated. (I try to audit and/or review the changes to my projects.)

Thanks for the confirmation.

[rigor789]

It's here, but yes it is deprecated: https://www.npmjs.com/package/querystring

[NathanWalker]

@Adelrisk I revisited this in a project and there's another way to resolve too I wanted to mention here in case helps others.
The primary issue comes from the util package inserting some debug check outside of exported functions. This causes the webpack build to encounter process before it's defined in a bundle. You can also just apply this patch using patch-package which also resolved this issue without having to change anything in your package dependencies - see attached file and a look at the patch here:

diff --git a/node_modules/util/util.js b/node_modules/util/util.js
index 6db393e..6fecf25 100644
--- a/node_modules/util/util.js
+++ b/node_modules/util/util.js
@@ -106,14 +106,6 @@ exports.deprecate = function(fn, msg) {
 var debugs = {};
 var debugEnvRegex = /^$/;
 
-if (process.env.NODE_DEBUG) {
-  var debugEnv = process.env.NODE_DEBUG;
-  debugEnv = debugEnv.replace(/[|\\{}()[\]^$+?.]/g, '\\$&')
-    .replace(/\*/g, '.*')
-    .replace(/,/g, '$|^')
-    .toUpperCase();
-  debugEnvRegex = new RegExp('^' + debugEnv + '$', 'i');
-}
 exports.debuglog = function(set) {
   set = set.toUpperCase();
   if (!debugs[set]) {

util+0.12.5.patch