expo prebuild fails with tar v7 due to _interopRequireDefault assuming no default export

[mazenkhalil]

expo prebuild fails with tar v7 due to _interopRequireDefault assuming no default export

Summary

expo prebuild crashes with Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'extract') when tar v7 is resolved in the dependency tree (e.g. via a package manager override).

Root cause

@expo/cli imports tar using Babel's _interopRequireDefault:

// node_modules/@expo/cli/build/src/utils/npm.js:63
const data = _interopRequireDefault(require("tar"));

function _interopRequireDefault(obj) {
  return obj && obj.__esModule ? obj : { default: obj };
}

• tar v6 does not set __esModule, so the wrapper creates { default: tarModule } and _tar().default.extract(...) works.
• tar v7 sets __esModule: true but only exports named exports (no default export). So _interopRequireDefault returns the module as-is, and _tar().default resolves to undefined, causing the crash.

The failing call is in extractNpmTarballAsync:

// node_modules/@expo/cli/build/src/utils/npm.js:173
await pipeline(stream, transformStream, _tar().default.extract({
    cwd, filter, onentry, strip
}, fileList));

Reproduction

1. Create an Expo SDK 52 project using pnpm
2. Add a tar override to v7 in package.json:

   "pnpm": {
     "overrides": {
       "tar": "7.5.11"
     }
   }

3. Run pnpm install && npx expo prebuild --clean

Expected: Prebuild succeeds
Actual: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'extract')

Environment

Dependency	Version
Expo SDK	52
@expo/cli	bundled with expo@~52.0.46
tar	7.5.11
Node	v24.14.0
Package manager	pnpm 10.11.0

Suggested fix

Revert back to v6 or bump expo