[BUG] 503 when publishing a new version when we have too many existing versions

[nvuillam]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

npm publish returns a 503 when trying to publish a new package version.

npm notice shasum:        e9cfaf3c6efa2202[36](https://github.com/oxsecurity/megalinter/actions/runs/5098415359/jobs/9165540010#step:5:37)e1adbde9555457a322abda
npm notice integrity:     sha512-7S6DoNSc/7/d4[...]IS0oSiy04+wWA==
npm notice total files:   17                                      
npm notice 
npm notice Publishing to https://registry.npmjs.org/
npm ERR! code E503
npm ERR! 503 Service Unavailable - PUT https://registry.npmjs.org/mega-linter-runner - Service Unavailable

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/runner/.npm/_logs/2023-05-27T10_52_12_225Z-debug-0.log
mega-linter-runner not published

Expected Behavior

I had the exact same problem with sfdx-hardis some months ago , and now I can't publish a new version of mega-linte-runner (quite impacting while releasing a new major version ... )
The solution was that support manually deletes hundreds of alpha and beta versions, which was impossible through CLI (503 again)

I posted ticket 2177911 on npm support but nobody replied yet and I'm still unable to publish a newer version.

Would it at least be possible to return a meaningful error message ?

And why not provide a workaround allowing to solve the problem without going through support ?

Many thanks

Steps To Reproduce

Same failure in CI or local CLI

Environment

• npm: 9.6.7
• Node.js: v18.15.0
• OS Name: Windows or ubuntu from Github Actions public runners
• System Model Name: Acer laptop
• npm config:

; "builtin" config from C:\Users\33614\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\npmrc

prefix = "C:\\Users\\33614\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm"

; "user" config from C:\Users\33614\.npmrc

//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken = (protected)
strict-ssl = false

; node bin location = C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe
; node version = v18.15.0
; npm local prefix = C:\git\megalinter\mega-linter-runner
; npm version = 9.6.7
; cwd = C:\git\megalinter\mega-linter-runner
; HOME = C:\Users\33614
; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults.