[BUG] v12.0.2 breaks npm test "hash character in working directory path"

[TrevorBurnham]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

I noticed something surprising while submitted a patch to npm/cli (npm/cli#8108): On the current latest branch (3a80a7b7), if I run node ./scripts/resetdeps.js in accordance with the Contributing docs, npm-package-arg gets updated from 12.0.1 to 12.0.2. After that change, the test "hash character in working directory path" fails:

 FAIL ​ test/lib/commands/link.js 1 failed of 15 3s
 ✖Could not read package.json: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/code/npm-cli/test/lib/commands/tap-testdir-link-hash
  -character-in-working-directory-path/other/i_like_%23_in_my_paths/test-pkg-link/package.json'

Expected Behavior

As a contributor to npm/cli, I would expect all tests to pass after I pull latest and run node ./scripts/resetdeps.js.

Steps To Reproduce

git clone https://github.com/npm/cli.git
cd cli
node ./scripts/resetdeps.js
node . run test test/lib/commands/link.js

Environment

As the failing CI tests for npm/cli#8108 show, this issue is happening across all environments.

[TrevorBurnham]

I see two options here:

1. Find a way to retain backward compatibility, by satisfying the test case at test: Add test case for regression in npm/cli (#203) #204.
2. Require downstream packages to stop escaping hash characters (and possibly others) before passing file paths to npm-package-arg, as in deps: npm-package-arg@12.0.2 cli#8112.

Since the changes in #200 went out in a patch release, I think finding a way to follow it up with another patch for backward compatibility would be ideal. Though either way, removing the escaping code in npm/cli feels like a nice bit of code cleanup. cc @wraithgar @reggi

[wraithgar]

As of right now we're considering this a test regression. The path forward is for us to make a PR updating just that dep and fix the test, and determine if it's something npm needs to handle or if the test was just working around buggy behavior.