NPM error when installing globally even when directories are writable

Question

i have this error when try to install coffee-script using this command:

npm install -g --verbose coffee-script opal

these are the error message:

npm ERR! Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/coffee-script/bin/coffee'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/coffee-script/bin/coffee']
npm ERR!   errno: 3,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   path: '../lib/node_modules/coffee-script/bin/coffee' }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm info postuninstall opal@0.3.2
npm ERR! Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/opal/bin/opal-node'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/opal/bin/opal-node']
npm ERR!   errno: 3,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   path: '../lib/node_modules/opal/bin/opal-node' }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

the folder /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib/node_modules are owned and writable by current user, and i do not want to run that npm command using root, how to know which folder that the npm tried to make a symlink to?

i'm using npm 1.2.9-1chl1~quantal1 and nodejs 0.8.19-1chl1~quantal1

score 20 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 09 '13 at 10:44

20

your node installation uses system directories. Use sudo when using -g

sudo npm install -g --verbose coffee-script opal

answered Feb 09 '13 at 10:44

Pascal Belloncle

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Is there anything inherently unsafe about doing this? – snapfractalpop May 24 '13 at 17:11
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I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it that way. I'd rather install node in way that does not require sudo. – Pascal Belloncle May 24 '13 at 20:45
`sudo npm remove -g name-of-module` – Pascal Belloncle May 24 '13 at 23:38
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`sudo npm` is discouraged by the author of `npm`, see e.g. here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/29787931/1614973 – Dmitri Zaitsev May 16 '15 at 02:54
@DmitriZaitsev indeed, it is, but in the OP case, that was the easiest to get him out of his predicament. Fixing the permissions on his npm caches is not a single shot type solution. – Pascal Belloncle May 16 '15 at 06:31
Yes - it is the easiest, but leads to more troubles in the future. I've burnt through it myself and like to warn others - it is the worse solution out of the two. – Dmitri Zaitsev May 16 '15 at 12:16

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 08 '14 at 23:34

15

You can chown NPM's bin to your user name with this one liner to solve this problem:

$ chown -R `whoami` `npm -g bin`

answered Jul 08 '14 at 23:34

Mohsen

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careful! changes ownership everything in `/usr/bin/` (e.g., `sudo` also) – arve0 Jun 05 '15 at 13:51

Kokizzu · Answer 3 · 2015-05-16T07:01:18.410

4

ah, using this command:

npm -g bin

it would output something like this:

/usr/bin # this is the folder nodejs wanted to write..

then you may chmod or chown it so it can be written for installation.

edited May 16 '15 at 07:01

answered Feb 09 '13 at 09:15

Kokizzu

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This is helpful information but does not answer the question. – Dmitri Zaitsev May 16 '15 at 03:04

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

I had a similar problem at NPM modules won't install globally without sudo, the issue was that when i installed node i did it with sudo via chris/lea ppa repo.

My solution was to uninstall node and then install it this way:

Download latest stable node sources from nodejs.org #in my case node-v0.10.20.tar.gz

tar -zxf node-v0.10.20.tar.gz #uncompress sources

cd node-v0.10.20 #enter uncompressed folder

sudo chown $USER -R /usr/local

./configure --prefix=/usr/local && make && make install

PD: If you don't want to change ownership of the /usr/local folder, you can install it somewhere you already own. The problem of this approach is that you will have to bind the installation folder with the bash command line so that we can use the node command later on

mkdir ~/opt

./configure --prefix=~/opt && make && make install

echo 'export PATH=~/opt/bin:${PATH}' >> ~/.bashrc #or ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshenv depending on the current Operative System

With either of those approaches, you will be able to do the following without using sudo

npm install -g --verbose coffee-script opal

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 11 '14 at 10:08

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Had a similar problem. Turns out I had something in project/node_modules directory installed with sudo. In my case it was some of the dependencies AND ALSO .bin directory. I deleted these bad directories, then ran npm install again and it succeeded. I did also reinstall global protractor and phantomjs, but not sure if that was required. I am sure it was the bad (i.e. root-owned) .bin directory causing this.

answered Feb 11 '14 at 10:08

jbasko

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You did not have to delete the "bad" directories, just set their permissions and/or ownerships as explained in other answers. – Dmitri Zaitsev May 16 '15 at 03:01

NPM error when installing globally even when directories are writable

5 Answers5