Replace .npmignore with the package.json 'files' property.

[iclanton]

This field is more intuitive than the .npmignore file.

pnpm pack doesn't support the negative patterns yet, so we can't merge this in until that's fixed.

[elliot-nelson]

🤔 Interesting. I can understand "files" being more intuitive because it doesn't have that "reversed pattern" problem, but it also is tucked away in package.json (it isn't a file you can copy between projects anymore).

I also just want to double-check whether this change is honored by the other pieces of Rush that honor .npmignore -- for example, will rush deploy correctly behave the same way if your projects only have "files": entries?

[iclanton]

I also just want to double-check whether this change is honored by the other pieces of Rush that honor .npmignore -- for example, will rush deploy correctly behave the same way if your projects only have "files": entries?

Hmm. Probably not. That needs to be investigated.

[octogonz]

Is there a solution that doesn't rely on package.json?

• package.json cannot store code comments to document why the globs were added (this is arguably more important than the glob not being inverted)
• with .npmignore you can quickly check whether a folder is configured, copy+paste recipes between folders, and diff them to see if they're up to date -- package.json lacks all those features
• package.json by design cannot validate its settings (e.g. what if someone mistypes "files" as "files "?

I agree with the criticisms of .npmignore, but maybe we can make the situation better rather than differently bad. 😃