Composer install fails with contrib project and bad patch

[steveoliver]

I have a Commerce 2.x project from composer create-project drupalcommerce/project-base mystore --stability dev (install docs) that is requiring one project (commerce_shipping currently, but any one of the commerce contrib projects produced similar errors), and with one failing-to-apply patch to commerce.

The problem is that with a commerce + contrib + bad patch composer.json file, I can composer update but I cannot afterwards composer install. IF I either a.) remove the contrib requirement, or b.) fix the patch, I can composer install after a composer update.

Here is the "bad patch" composer.json and "good patch" composer.json.

Steps to reproduce:

1. composer update && composer install with bad-patch composer.json. Should fail with error:

Your requirements could not be resolved to an installable set of packages.

Problem 1
- drupal/commerce_price 2.x-dev requires drupal/commerce == 2.9999999.9999999.9999999-dev -> no matching package found.
- drupal/commerce_price 2.x-dev requires drupal/commerce == 2.9999999.9999999.9999999-dev -> no matching package found.
- Installation request for drupal/commerce_price 2.x-dev -> satisfiable by drupal/commerce_price[2.x-dev].

Potential causes:

• A typo in the package name
• The package is not available in a stable-enough version according to your minimum-stability setting
  see https://getcomposer.org/doc/04-schema.md#minimum-stability for more details.

Read https://getcomposer.org/doc/articles/troubleshooting.md for further common problems.

2. composer update && composer install with the good-patch composer.json. Should succeed.
3. composer update && composer install with the bad-patch composer.json, but commerce_shipping require removed.

I've seen patches not apply without composer failing. I don't expect dependency errors to arise from composer patches that don't apply. I'd expect to see them regardless of patch failures.

Am I the only one, or can others reproduce this?

[steveoliver]

If we do want composer to fail with bad patches, I think the solution to this issue is to report the actual error--bad patches--instead of a version constraint message.

[mglaman]

Can reproduce. If composer update drupal/project has patch and fails, next composer install freaks out with 2.9999999.9999999.9999999-dev constraint.

[mglaman]

Generally running the update again fixes it (assuming patch failure was a fluke.(

[cweagans]

Added to the 2.0.0 roadmap (#93)

[cweagans]

I think this was probably a composer bug. Things have changed significantly since then, so I'm going to assume this is no longer an issue. Please let me know if that's not the case.