[Bug]: In some cases --output_base makes builds using external binaries fail

[rdfirtal]

What happened?

When running builds in Gitlab with local caches, the cached directories must exist within the workspace folder. Because of this, every Bazel command must be run with the bazel --output_base=some-dir option (or put a line in the .bazelrc file with startup --output_base=some-dir)

However, that flag breaks some binaries, for instance, Vuepress if the generated binary is used:

load("@npm//:vitepress/package_json.bzl", vitepress = "bin")

vitepress.vitepress(
    name = "app",
    srcs = [ "index.md", "//:node_modules/vue" ],
    args = ["build"],
    chdir = package_name(),
    out_dirs = [".vitepress/dist"],
)

When running with the --output_base option, it fails with an error message like this one:

INFO: Found 1 target...
ERROR: /workspace/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod/app/BUILD.bazel:3:20: Vitepress app/.vitepress/dist failed: (Exit 1): app__js_binary.sh failed: error executing command (from target //app:app) bazel-out/k8-opt-exec-2B5CBBC6/bin/app/app__js_binary.sh build

Use --sandbox_debug to see verbose messages from the sandbox and retain the sandbox build root for debugging
build error:
 Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, mkdir '/workspace/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod/node_modules'
    at Object.mkdirSync (node:fs:1382:3)
    at makeDir$1.makeDirSync (file:///workspace/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod/buildcache/execroot/__main__/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/node_modules/.aspect_rules_js/[email protected]/node_modules/vitepress/dist/node/serve-80cecaf0.js:8871:15)
    at Object.createSymlinkSync$1 (file:///workspace/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod/buildcache/execroot/__main__/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/node_modules/.aspect_rules_js/[email protected]/node_modules/vitepress/dist/node/serve-80cecaf0.js:9869:3)
    at linkVue (file:///workspace/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod/buildcache/execroot/__main__/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/node_modules/.aspect_rules_js/[email protected]/node_modules/vitepress/dist/node/serve-80cecaf0.js:41881:12)
    at build (file:///workspace/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod/buildcache/execroot/__main__/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/node_modules/.aspect_rules_js/[email protected]/node_modules/vitepress/dist/node/serve-80cecaf0.js:41810:21) {
  errno: -2,
  syscall: 'mkdir',
  code: 'ENOENT',
  path: '/workspace/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod/node_modules'
}

Version

Development (host) and target OS/architectures:
Official bazel Docker image + fresh linux insalls where pnpm has never been run

Output of bazel --version:
bazel 6.0.0

Version of the Aspect rules, or other relevant rules from your
WORKSPACE or MODULE.bazel file:

1.15.0 (also happened on 1.14.0)

Language(s) and/or frameworks involved:
Vitepress

How to reproduce

I created a simple reproduction example with a one-click button to run in Gitpod.

https://github.com/rdfirtal/bazel_rulesjs_output_base_reprod

Any other information?

No response

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