fix: Inconsistent exit code / output with melos exec dart pub publish --dry-run when publishing older patch version

[MobiliteDev]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues.

Version

7.0.0-dev.8

Description

I have a monorepo managed by Melos.
One of the packages (X) is currently at version 9.0.0 on the registry.
I’m trying to publish a backport patch 8.5.1 (while 8.5.0 already exists).

When I run:

melos publish --dry-run --yes

The output shows:

A FAILED tag for the package (exit code 65)
But then “All packages were validated successfully”
And Melos process exits with code 0 (echo %ERRORLEVEL% or check $LASTEXITCODE on PowerShell)

I use it in my CI and my pipeline fails even though the dry run is successful.

However if I run the actual publish (no --dry-run), it works fine and publishes 8.5.1 successfully.

So the only problem is the DX and reporting of the dry-run mode:

• It reports a failure even though the version is valid
• It returns an exit code 0 even though it prints “FAILED”

Steps to reproduce

• Create a monorepo package and release a major version (ex: 2.0.0)
• Create a backport release from a previous major (1.0.0)
• Run:

melos publish --dry-run --yes

Expected behavior

Dry-run should either :

• Exit with code 0 if sucess
• Exit with code >0 but do not display a success message

Screenshots

No response

Additional context and comments

When using dart command in the package (not the monorepo), It has the same behavior, the exit code is > 0 in dry-run, but when running the actual publish, it does work and exit code is 0. So the inconsistency between dry-run and actual publish is on dart's end. The point of this issue is simply the inconsistency between the two messages “FAILED” and “SUCCESS.”

Other

• I'm interested in working on a PR for this.