add the npm directory to your PATH

Question

I try to install corodva. So far i'm good I think.

I did use sudo npm install -g cordova in terminal. This was the output:

/usr/local/bin/cordova -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova/bin/cordova
cordova@3.5.0-0.2.6 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova
├── q@0.9.7
├── underscore@1.4.4
├── nopt@2.2.1 (abbrev@1.0.5)
└── cordova-lib@0.21.6 (osenv@0.0.3, properties-parser@0.2.3, bplist-parser@0.0.5, mime@1.2.11, semver@2.0.11, plist-with-patches@0.5.1, dep-graph@1.1.0, shelljs@0.1.4, npmconf@0.1.16, rc@0.3.0, glob@3.2.11, xcode@0.6.6, elementtree@0.1.5, tar@0.1.19, request@2.22.0, npm@1.3.4, cordova-js@3.6.2)

Which looks ok if you ask me.

Looking at those instructions:

http://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/3.5.0//guide_cli_index.md.html#The%20Command-Line%20Interface

It says:

You may need to add the npm directory to your PATH in order to invoke globally installed npm modules. On Windows, npm can usually be found at C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm. On OS X and Linux it can usually be found at /usr/local/share/npm.

I don't have the npm folder in /usr/local/share. Should I create it manually? And then add it to PATH?

Or can it be that it is located somewhere else?

I don't see how having a PATH to a empty folder would help.

If i run in terminal: cordova create hello com.example.hello HelloWorld

Then the download completes without errors. So everything might be ok. I'm just checking here to make sure so I don't scratch my head for hours in a later stadium.

Answer 1

On most nix systems npm's global location should already be in your path, you'll need to use sudo npm install -g PACKAGE to install globally.

You don't specify your OS, but I've installed in windows, osx and ubuntu. In windows, the global is a weird location and the installer doesn't always work.. for OSX if you use the homebrew recipe it should work out of the box, same goes for ubuntu using the chrislea ppa.

For windows users specifically, see my answer to this related question.