nf-tower@1.9.1: ‘Cannot find target plugin’ error

[jsitarova-dnanexus]

Bug report

Hi team,
After upgrading Nextflow to 24.10.5 version, we are no longer able to run nf-tower@1.9.1 plugin commands using the syntax:
nextflow plugin nf-tower@version:command

Expected behavior and actual behavior

When downloading nf-tower, the NXF_PLUGINS_DIR variable is ignored, and the plugin is stored in a different location. Even after updating $NXF_PLUGINS_DIR to point to the correct directory (where the plugin is stored), attempting to execute the command results in the following error:
Cannot find target plugin: nf-tower@1.9.1

Steps to reproduce the problem

# set env variables
$ export NXF_HOME=/opt/nextflow
$ echo $NXF_HOME
/opt/nextflow
$ export NXF_PLUGINS_DIR=/opt/nextflow/plugins
$ echo $NXF_PLUGINS_DIR
/opt/nextflow/plugins

# download plugin
$ nextflow plugin install nf-tower@1.9.1
Downloading plugin nf-tower@1.9.1

# check NXF_PLUGINS_DIR
ls $NXF_PLUGINS_DIR  # note, dir is empty

# check /root/.nextflow/plugins
$ ls /root/.nextflow/plugins  # plugin is stored in a different location
nf-tower-1.9.1

# run command
$ nextflow plugin nf-tower@1.9.1:cache-backup
Cannot find target plugin: nf-tower@1.9.1

# change NXF_PLUGINS_DIR to point to dir where the plugin is stored
$ export NXF_PLUGINS_DIR=/root/.nextflow/plugins
$ echo $NXF_PLUGINS_DIR
/root/.nextflow/plugins

# run the command again
$ sudo nextflow plugin nf-tower@1.9.1:cache-backup
Cannot find target plugin: nf-tower@1.9.1

Program output

There is no output produced.

Environment

• Nextflow version: 24.10.5 build 5935
• Java version: 17.0.14
• Operating system: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
• Bash version: GNU bash, version 5.2.21(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

Additional context

Running a pipeline (e.g.,hello) that uses the plugin does work in the same environment:

# nextflow run hello -plugins nf-tower@1.9.1
[done]

NOTE: We observe the same behavior with other plugins as well when using a specific version.

Please let us know if this is a known issue or if there’s a workaround for executing plugin commands for specific plugin version with the 24.10.5 Nextflow version. Thanks!