[Feature] Allow linker selection in Yarn installation process

[RomainLanz]

Hey there! 👋🏻

• I'd be willing to implement this feature (contributing guide)
• This feature is important to have in this repository; a contrib plugin wouldn't do

Describe the user story

When installing a new application via its CLI (e.g., yarn create xxx), the specified package often clones a starter kit and installs the necessary dependencies using a package like install-pkg.

Currently, Yarn defaults to Plug’n’Play (PnP) as its installation mode. However, there may be instances where the required framework is incompatible with Yarn PnP, which forces users to change the nodeLinkers setting and reinstall all dependencies.

Describe the solution you'd like

It would be beneficial if the yarn install command allowed us to pass a flag to specify the desired linker.

yarn install --linker=pnpm 

Describe the drawbacks of your solution

I don't see any drawbacks to implementing this change, except that the command should fail if the nodeLinker is already set. This is important to avoid mismatches in dependency management.

[RomainLanz]

Any feedback on this? 😄

[clemyan]

Wouldn't that require whatever "create-" tool to change their yarn install invocation to include the flag? And if they can do that, why not just go a step further to yarn config set nodeLinker <linker> && yarn install?

[RomainLanz]

Wouldn't that require whatever "create-" tool to change their yarn install invocation to include the flag?

I wasn't aware that we could change the setting by using yarn config set nodeLinker. That approach would indeed work.

It's a bit more verbose, but it's explicit.