+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #2177776 +++

Description of problem:
Initially reported https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2176555 against osbuild, the easiest method of resolving this issue is if we can remove the /usr/etc/npmrc softlink in npm and just use /etc/npmrc.

If we can do that, then osbuild will not have to workaround this single package. This is the only package we have found so far that has any content in /usr/etc/

# rpm -qlv npm | grep etc/npmrc
-rw-r--r--    1 root    root                       18 Feb 25  2021 /etc/npmrc
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root    root                       10 Feb 25  2021 /usr/etc/npmrc -> /etc/npmrc

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 npm

--- Additional comment from  on 2023-03-15 12:45:58 UTC ---

Since image builder can not handle modules only the default (16) is applicable at this time BUT I do have a bug on image builder getting the ability to handle modules.  So if we could take it out of both streams, and future streams of nodejs, this issue wouldn't return.