When hitting the URL http://xx.xx.xx.xx:8081/artifactory/api/npm/npm/-/ping
as used by the npm-ping command https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/ping.html
Artifactory returns a 500 response and logs a traceback of:
2020-05-28 18:02:49,223 [http-nio-8081-exec-10] [ERROR] (o.a.r.c.e.m.GlobalExceptionMapper:48) - null java.lang.NullPointerException: null at org.artifactory.addon.npm.repo.NpmRemoteRepoHandler.replaceTarballUrl(NpmRemoteRepoHandler.java:398) at org.artifactory.addon.npm.repo.NpmRemoteRepoHandler.getVersionMetadata(NpmRemoteRepoHandler.java:219) at org.artifactory.addon.npm.repo.merge.NpmVersionMetadataMerger.merge(NpmVersionMetadataMerger.java:65) at org.artifactory.addon.npm.repo.merge.NpmMetadataMerger.getMergedResult(NpmMetadataMerger.java:67) at org.artifactory.addon.npm.repo.NpmVirtualRepoHandler.getVersionMetadata(NpmVirtualRepoHandler.java:83) at org.jfrog.repomd.npm.rest.NpmSubResource.packageVersion(NpmSubResource.java:79) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.internal.ResourceMethodInvocationHandlerFactory.lambda$static$0(ResourceMethodInvocationHandlerFactory.java:76) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.internal.AbstractJavaResourceMethodDispatcher$1.run(AbstractJavaResourceMethodDispatcher.java:148) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.internal.AbstractJavaResourceMethodDispatcher.invoke(AbstractJavaResourceMethodDispatcher.java:191) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.internal.JavaResourceMethodDispatcherProvider$ResponseOutInvoker.doDispatch(JavaResourceMethodDispatcherProvider.java:200) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.internal.AbstractJavaResourceMethodDispatcher.dispatch(AbstractJavaResourceMethodDispatcher.java:103) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.ResourceMethodInvoker.invoke(ResourceMethodInvoker.java:493) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.ResourceMethodInvoker.apply(ResourceMethodInvoker.java:415) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.model.ResourceMethodInvoker.apply(ResourceMethodInvoker.java:104) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.ServerRuntime$1.run(ServerRuntime.java:277) at org.glassfish.jersey.internal.Errors$1.call(Errors.java:272) at org.glassfish.jersey.internal.Errors$1.call(Errors.java:268) at org.glassfish.jersey.internal.Errors.process(Errors.java:316) at org.glassfish.jersey.internal.Errors.process(Errors.java:298) at org.glassfish.jersey.internal.Errors.process(Errors.java:268) at org.glassfish.jersey.process.internal.RequestScope.runInScope(RequestScope.java:289) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.ServerRuntime.process(ServerRuntime.java:256) at org.glassfish.jersey.server.ApplicationHandler.handle(ApplicationHandler.java:703) at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.WebComponent.serviceImpl(WebComponent.java:416) at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.WebComponent.service(WebComponent.java:370) at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:389) at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:342) at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:229) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:231) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.RepoFilter.execute(RepoFilter.java:195) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.RepoFilter.doFilter(RepoFilter.java:97) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.AccessFilter.useAuthentication(AccessFilter.java:427) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.AccessFilter.doFilterInternal(AccessFilter.java:214) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.AccessFilter.doFilter(AccessFilter.java:167) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.RequestFilter.doFilter(RequestFilter.java:77) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.ArtifactoryCsrfFilter.doFilter(ArtifactoryCsrfFilter.java:75) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.springframework.session.web.http.SessionRepositoryFilter.doFilterInternal(SessionRepositoryFilter.java:164) at org.springframework.session.web.http.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:80) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.SessionFilter.doFilter(SessionFilter.java:62) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.artifactory.webapp.servlet.ArtifactoryFilter.doFilter(ArtifactoryFilter.java:124) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:199) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:96) at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:543) at org.apache.catalina.valves.rewrite.RewriteValve.invoke(RewriteValve.java:305) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:139) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:81) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:87) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:343) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:609) at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:65) at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:818) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1623) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Other URLs "nearby" to .../-/ping return 404, so it looks like npm ping support must have some code behind it, but it doesn't seem to be working as intended.
We ran into this issue when using the https://github.com/release-it/release-it tool, which recently added a npm ping healthcheck before attempting to interact with a repository. We've disabled these checks as a workaround, but it looks like at the moment that tool (and possibly others? I personally am not super familiar with the node ecosystem) are not usable out of the box with artifactory. For reference, here is the relevant issue in release-it: https://github.com/release-it/release-it/issues/637