browserify error /usr/bin/env: node: No such file or directory

Question

I installed node js and npm via apt-get install and all of the dependencies, then I installed browserify

npm install browserify -g

it goes through the process and it seems like it installed correctly, but when I try to do a simple bundle per this walkthrough

I get the error:

/usr/bin/env: node: No such file or directory

enter image description here

hmm you should check if the node executable is in /usr/bin or /usb/bin/env at least this is a operating specific problem. You may be able to solve this by installing browserify local. — bodokaiser, Jan 02 '14 at 15:35
my browserfy executable is in the /usr/local/bin/ but is it calling something else thats the path is messed up ? — Eddie Martinez, Jan 02 '14 at 15:38
I guess that the browserify executable uses a shebang like "#!/usr/bin/env node". This tells the shell to execute the following code with the node binary. However your linux may not have this /usr/bin/env helper which determines the path of node. May be you can google if this is a known issue. — bodokaiser, Jan 02 '14 at 15:40
ah you have to symlink nodejs to node on ubuntu. Ubuntu installs node as nodejs then you have to do something like "ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node" so that the systems also finds it as node — bodokaiser, Jan 02 '14 at 15:43
that solved it :-P I have been breaking my head over this for the past hour, can you please put in answer format to accept ? — Eddie Martinez, Jan 02 '14 at 15:44
glad it worked was not sure if it really is this problems thats why I commented first :) — bodokaiser, Jan 02 '14 at 19:58
actually symlinking nodejs to node will break your system in subtle ways. This is why update-alternatives exists. — airtonix, Oct 28 '14 at 21:56
This is great! I found out that I have no idea about how to read Terminal errors :)) — Victor, Aug 16 '15 at 07:14
On Linux, be sure line endings are correct. Run something like `dos2unix` on the file. — jww, Oct 14 '17 at 20:54

score 251 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 02 '14 at 19:58

251

Some linux distributions install nodejs not as "node" executable but as "nodejs".

In this case you have to manually link to "node" as many packages are programmed after the "node" binary. Something similar also occurs with "python2" not linked to "python".

In this case you can do an easy symlink. For linux distributions which install package binaries to /usr/bin you can do

ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node

answered Jan 02 '14 at 19:58

bodokaiser

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This is *not* the solution for Ubuntu 14.04 because `/usb/sbin/node` is ax24-node (unrelated to nodejs). Just symbolic linking to `/usr/bin/node` will not work because `/usr/sbin/node` comes first in the `$PATH` – Gareth May 29 '14 at 09:24
8

the correct way to solve this is to use `update-alternatives`. see my answer here http://stackoverflow.com/a/24592328/454615 – airtonix Jul 06 '14 at 02:59
1

actually thinking more about this... symlinking binaries around like this is a great habit to adopt if you're looking to break your system. – airtonix Oct 28 '14 at 21:55
yea I have noticed it does break it in subtle ways, have you found a better solution ? – Eddie Martinez Oct 28 '14 at 21:57
1

@EduardoDennis yes, use `update-alternatives`. it exists for these exact situations. – airtonix Jan 20 '15 at 10:08
Thanks bodokaiser! I'm not clear why the npm package `browserify` need node to run... how is the command launched exactly? – Alexander Suraphel Jul 06 '15 at 15:27
@AlexanderSuraphel Browserify needs NodeJs to run, because it's a written in javascript for NodeJs. Not sure how you could miss this primary aspect of Browserify? – airtonix Oct 22 '16 at 11:22
getting error "ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/bin/node': Permission denied" on Ubuntu 16.04 – vikramvi Dec 08 '17 at 10:43

airtonix · Answer 2 · 2016-10-22T11:25:59.033

53

New Answer:

Uninstall any nodejs package you've installed via your system package manager (dnf, apt-get, etc), delete any silly symlinks you've been recreating every upgrade (lol).
Install NVM,
use nvm to install nodejs: nvm install 6

Old Answer:

Any talk of creating symlinks or installing some other node-package are spurious and not sustainable.

The correct way to solve this is to :

simple install the nodejs package with apt-get like you already have
use update-alternatives to indicate your nodejs binary is responsible for #!/usr/bin/env node

Like so :

sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/node nodejs /usr/bin/nodejs 100

This now becomes sustainable throughout package upgrades, dist-upgrades and so forth.

edited Oct 22 '16 at 11:25

answered Jul 06 '14 at 02:58

airtonix

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This is a solution for my problem http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26155795/sudo-user-not-using-same-node-version – Alon Carmel Oct 02 '14 at 07:15
Thanks, great solution, the trick with symlinks is the one most repeated over the net but didn't work for me. – Emilia Tyl Nov 17 '15 at 11:24
The actual correct answer now is to use NVM on Linux, and Nodist on Windows. – airtonix Mar 01 '16 at 22:18
2022 update: nvm is nice, but you should really look into using ASDF – airtonix May 19 '22 at 23:07

score 35 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 04 '14 at 00:55

35

Run apt-get install nodejs-legacy.

Certain linux distributions have changed node.js binary name making it uncompatible with a lot of node.js packages. Package nodejs-legacy provides a symlink to resolve this.

answered Jan 04 '14 at 00:55

alex

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This is the solution for Ubuntu 14.04 because `/usb/sbin/node` is ax24-node (unrelated to nodejs). Just symbolic linking to `/usr/bin/node` will not work because `/usr/sbin/node` comes first in the `$PATH` – Gareth May 29 '14 at 09:23
Helped me out. Thanks! – Lapidus Jun 18 '14 at 09:53
apt-get install nodejs-legacy. says for windows user 'apt-get' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. – Swift Apr 19 '17 at 10:42

Eddie Martinez · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-09T19:20:07.393

You can also install Nodejs using NVM or Nodejs Version Manager. There are a lot of benefits to using a version manager. One of them being you don't have to worry about this issue.

Instructions:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev

Once the prerequisite packages are installed, you can pull down the nvm installation script from the project's GitHub page. The version number may be different, but in general, you can download and install it with the following syntax:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.16.1/install.sh | sh

This will download the script and run it. It will install the software into a subdirectory of your home directory at ~/.nvm. It will also add the necessary lines to your ~/.profile file to use the file.

To gain access to the nvm functionality, you'll need to log out and log back in again, or you can source the ~/.profile file so that your current session knows about the changes:

source ~/.profile

Now that you have nvm installed, you can install isolated Node.js versions.

To find out the versions of Node.js that are available for installation, you can type:

nvm ls-remote
. . .

v0.11.10
v0.11.11
v0.11.12
v0.11.13
v0.11.14

As you can see, the newest version at the time of this writing is v0.11.14. You can install that by typing:

nvm install 0.11.14

Usually, nvm will switch to use the most recently installed version. You can explicitly tell nvm to use the version we just downloaded by typing:

nvm use 0.11.14

When you install Node.js using nvm, the executable is called node. You can see the version currently being used by the shell by typing:

node -v

The comeplete tutorial can be found here

yep, plus one for environment version managers. definitely a much better answer than mine despite ours being both the correct way to do this. I will say that nvm is more aimed at interactive workstations not production servers (but I can't see why one couldn't use it there)... personally I'm more inclined to use docker images in production. — airtonix, May 31 '15 at 05:35

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 19 '16 at 02:59

3

sudo apt-get install nodejs-legacy

This creates the symlink /usr/bin/node -> nodejs.

Source: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/07/msg00002.html

answered Apr 19 '16 at 02:59

kamikater

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@Swift Mac OS X doesn't have apt-get. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37369363/whats-the-equivalent-of-ubuntus-apt-get-command-on-a-mac – kamikater Jan 09 '18 at 10:00

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 07 '14 at 14:41

0

I seem the same problem when I build atom in Linux.

sudo apt-get install nodejs-dev

Fix my question.hope helpful to you.

answered Jun 07 '14 at 14:41

kangear

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 03 '15 at 09:27

0

If you don't want to symlink you could do this. works in ubuntu

#!/usr/local/bin/node --harmony

harmony tag is for the new ECMAscript harmony

answered Sep 03 '15 at 09:27

user2290820

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 13:24

0

run the command which node the result will be something

/home/moh/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.4/bin/node
Copy the path that you have got above then run the command in step 3.
ln -s /home/moh/.nvm/versions/node/v8.9.4/bin/node /usr/bin/node

answered Mar 21 '18 at 13:24

Moh .S

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score -1 · Answer 9 · edited May 28 '14 at 16:51

You have to call "nodejs" and not "node". To verify this, type node -v on the shell: if nothing is found try nodejs -v. If that displays a version number, then the command you should be using is nodejs and not node. Therefore, you have to change the call to browserify in your script from node to nodejs (as shown below): replace

#!/usr/bin/env node

with

#!/usr/bin/env nodejs

You might also have to open the script as the superuser.

browserify error /usr/bin/env: node: No such file or directory

9 Answers9

Instructions:

Linked