Invalid function npm:update

[morpheus-87]

I'm using this dependabot-script to update dependencies for repositories hosted on a private GitLab installation. For most of the repositories it's working like a charm, but for one repository I get a weird error:

$ bundle exec ruby ./generic-update-script.rb
warning: parser/current is loading parser/ruby27, which recognizes
warning: 2.7.1-compliant syntax, but you are running 2.7.6.
warning: please see https://github.com/whitequark/parser#compatibility-with-ruby-mri.
Fetching npm_and_yarn dependency files for foobar/cool-repository
Parsing dependencies information
  - Updating @aeaton/prosemirror-footnotes (from 0.1.0)…/builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-common-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/shared_helpers.rb:111:in `run_helper_subprocess': Invalid function npm:update (Dependabot::SharedHelpers::HelperSubprocessFailed)
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:151:in `run_npm_top_level_updater'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:139:in `block in run_npm_updater'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-common-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/shared_helpers.rb:141:in `with_git_configured'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:137:in `run_npm_updater'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:115:in `run_current_npm_update'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:35:in `block (2 levels) in updated_lockfile_content'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:34:in `chdir'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:34:in `block in updated_lockfile_content'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-common-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/shared_helpers.rb:37:in `block (2 levels) in in_a_temporary_directory'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-common-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/shared_helpers.rb:37:in `chdir'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-common-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/shared_helpers.rb:37:in `block in in_a_temporary_directory'
	from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.7.0/tmpdir.rb:89:in `mktmpdir'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-common-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/shared_helpers.rb:34:in `in_a_temporary_directory'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater/npm_lockfile_updater.rb:30:in `updated_lockfile_content'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater.rb:187:in `updated_package_lock_content'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater.rb:120:in `package_lock_changed?'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater.rb:149:in `block in updated_lockfiles'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater.rb:148:in `each'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater.rb:148:in `updated_lockfiles'
	from /builds/foobar/dependabot/vendor/ruby/2.7.0/gems/dependabot-npm_and_yarn-0.118.8/lib/dependabot/npm_and_yarn/file_updater.rb:39:in `updated_dependency_files'
	from ./generic-update-script.rb:207:in `block in <main>'
	from ./generic-update-script.rb:169:in `each'
	from ./generic-update-script.rb:169:in `<main>'

Does anyone know, what the reason for this error could be?

Edit: The process is running inside a docker container built from image dependabot/dependabot-core:0.212.0.

[jeffwidman]

Your best bet is to drop some binding.B or puts statements and start walking through where this gets called... it looks like there's some problem calling npm:update but not clear what command was that dependabot-core shelled out to npm with that resulted in that... if you can figure out the command, then run it natively with npm to see if it's throwing that error w/o dependabot-core... it'll probably give you a little more info so you can see if it's something in your repo, or npm or dependabot-core...