grunt: command not found when running from terminal

Question

I'm new to Grunt. I'm trying to configure Grunt on my Mac OSX Lion.

I followed the instructions here and then created a project folder that contains the files below. When I try to run by typing "grunt" into terminal I get command not found. I've also modified my paths sudo nano /etc/paths in the hope that adding the path would make the task runner work but it's still not working. Can someone assist with this please?

---paths

/usr/bin 
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/bin/grunt


--- files
node modules
Gruntfile.js
package.json

run this command from the terminal and add the output to your question: which grunt — Paul Allen, Jun 01 '13 at 04:23
possible duplicate of ["command not found" after installation](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15846076/command-not-found-after-installation) — Sindre Sorhus, Jun 02 '13 at 00:02
Dupe of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10667381/node-package-grunt-installed-but-not-available - great answer there. — Air, May 30 '14 at 13:10

score 509 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 12 '15 at 15:28

509

My fix for this on Mountain Lion was: -

npm install -g grunt-cli

Saw it on http://gruntjs.com/getting-started

edited Nov 12 '15 at 15:28

Jason Swett

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answered Sep 18 '13 at 16:19

user2792249

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also on Lion (10.7.4) – Rahul Thakur Dec 01 '13 at 11:51
8

Also on linux, (Ubuntu / Elementary OS) – iConnor Jan 02 '14 at 20:27
+1 This should be the accepted answer. grunt is the library, grunt-cli is the command-line tool. – Mark Cahill Jul 11 '14 at 11:02
Worked on Ubuntu 14.04. – imsky Jul 23 '14 at 21:38
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Should work just fine (and is probably better) without the `sudo`. – Matthew Shanley Jul 25 '14 at 17:49
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@MatthewShanley `sudo` is needed unless appropriate folder permissions were set when installing `npm` itself. – mostruash Aug 10 '14 at 12:03
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If you need `sudo`, permissions are wrong and you will get yourself in deeper trouble every install. Always make sure `npm` can run without `sudo`. – Laurens Kling Aug 21 '14 at 09:28
Agree with @LaurensKling. Fix your npm permission problem by following this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16151018/npm-throws-error-without-sudo – Bing Han Nov 20 '14 at 04:48
Awesome. Worked on Mac OSX Yosemite. – user3749994 Dec 10 '14 at 22:56
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Works with El Capitain! – Cédric Guillemette Oct 27 '15 at 14:34
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Works on Sierra ! – odemolliens Feb 27 '17 at 07:12
Works on macOS Mojave 10.14.1 – eureka19 Nov 26 '18 at 16:13

nschonni · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-01T05:19:47.337

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I'm guessing you used Brew to install Node, so the guide here might be helpful http://madebyhoundstooth.com/blog/install-node-with-homebrew-on-os-x/.

You need to ensure that the npm/bin is in your path as it describes export PATH="/usr/local/share/npm/bin:$PATH". This is the location that npm will install the bin stubs for the installed packages.

The nano version will also work as described here http://architectryan.com/2012/10/02/add-to-the-path-on-mac-os-x-mountain-lion/ but a restart of Terminal may be required to have the new path picked up.

edited Jun 01 '13 at 05:19

answered Jun 01 '13 at 04:35

nschonni

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can i add this using sudo nano /etc/paths ? – user686483 Jun 01 '13 at 04:36
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Looks like it here http://architectryan.com/2012/10/02/add-to-the-path-on-mac-os-x-mountain-lion/ but use `/usr/local/share/npm/bin` rather than the `/usr/local/bin/grunt` you have in the question – nschonni Jun 01 '13 at 04:40
1

I added the path using sudo nano /etc/paths but I still have no grunt commands /usr/local/share/npm/bin – user686483 Jun 01 '13 at 04:45
how do I get to that folder in terminal? – user686483 Jun 01 '13 at 05:01
I managed to unhide the folder using finder. My npm folder sits under /Users/myusername. – user686483 Jun 01 '13 at 05:08
I ran that command you recommended and I received the following output: grunt grunt-init – user686483 Jun 01 '13 at 05:12
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/31018/discussion-between-nschonni-and-user686483) – nschonni Jun 01 '13 at 05:13
now changed: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/grunt-cli/bin, can be seen after npm install. – chenge Dec 09 '14 at 23:11
still doesn't help me - maybe the path is different? – Dejell Oct 28 '15 at 11:53

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 09 '15 at 13:09

13

For windows

npm install -g grunt-cli

npm install load-grunt-tasks

Then run

grunt

edited Nov 09 '15 at 13:09

simeg

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answered Apr 28 '15 at 10:22

Mohit Singh

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didn't help me at all – Dejell Oct 28 '15 at 11:39
1

I'm running Windows 10 and only had to run 'npm install -g grunt-cli' – Dan Nov 15 '15 at 15:41

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 09 '15 at 13:17

6

I have been hunting around trying to solve this one for a while and none of the suggested updates to bash seemed to be working. What I discovered was that some point my npm root was modified such that it was pointing to a Users/USER_NAME/.node/node_modules while the actual installation of npm was living at /usr/local/lib/node_modules. You can check this by running npm root and npm root -g (for the global installation). To correct the path you can call npm config set prefix /usr/local.

edited Nov 09 '15 at 13:17

simeg

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answered May 02 '14 at 21:29

Bueno

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I am not able to synch up the two paths using the solution you provided – comiventor Nov 30 '15 at 13:23

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 01 '15 at 12:39

Also on OS X (El Capitan), been having this same issue all morning.

I was running the command "npm install -g grunt-cli" command from within a directory where my project was.

I tried again from my home directory (i.e. 'cd ~') and it installed as before, except now I can run the grunt command and it is recognised.

YJ. Yang · Answer 6 · 2016-10-15T03:51:28.127

5

the key point is finding the right path where your grunt was installed. I installed grunt through npm, but my grunt path was /Users/${whoyouare}/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/grunt/bin/grunt. So after I added /Users/${whoyouare}/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/grunt/bin to ~/.bash_profile,and source ~/.bash_profile, It worked.

So the steps are as followings:

1. find the path where your grunt was installed(when you installed grunt, it told you. if you don't remember, you can install it one more time)

2. vi ~/.bash_profile

3. export PATH=$PATH:/your/path/where/grunt/was/installed

4. source ~/.bash_profile

You can refer http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/grunt-command-not-found/

edited Oct 15 '16 at 03:51

answered Oct 15 '16 at 03:45

YJ. Yang

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Great answer, worked for me (Win7 x64). This is what I placed in my .bash_profile: `export PATH=$PATH:/Users//AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/grunt-cli/bin/grunt` – k_rollo Mar 13 '17 at 02:13
Also check `~/.npm-packages/lib/node_modules/grunt-cli/bin/grunt` (OS X High Sierra) – kubilay Nov 03 '18 at 17:00

grunt: command not found when running from terminal

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