Cannot get "npm install -g" to work on any packages (AppData/Roaming/npm always empty)

Question

Running nodejs on Windows 7 Enterprise at work.

Whenever I install a node_module that needs -g access, from experience I know it's supposed to create a *.bat file in %AppData$/Roaming/npm, but for some reason it no longer does that.

For example, I will run npm install gulp -g, console looks like it installed correctly, but the files will not be in the AppData folder. And if I try running a gulp command, I get error sh.exe": gulp: command not found.

If I run the npm install gulp -g command in Console As Administrator, it installs the files into the %AppData% folder of the administrator (instead of the regular user). So if I run the gulp command through my non-administrator user, I still get error sh.exe": gulp: command not found.

Any ideas?

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 11 '15 at 00:26

15

Found solution:

(1) Upon running the command: npm config get prefix, output is C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\local. No idea why it was set to this, as it's not the default.

But I changed it using: npm config set prefix "$APPDATA\npm".

Now when I install a --g module, ie. npm install gulp -g, it installs into this desirable directory, no longer throwing EPERM and ENOENT errors.

(2) Still need to add a PATH entry for the npm folder. The command export PATH=$PATH:/c/Users/{YOUR_USERNAME}/AppData/Roaming/npm works temporarily, but if you close console and open it again, might not be saved (if you are not an administrator).

But you can also use echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/c/Users/{YOUR_USERNAME}/AppData/Roaming/npm' >> ~/.bash_profile, which will create a .bash_profile file, which is run each time as your console is opened. So from this point, it should automatically add the required PATH entry.

answered Sep 11 '15 at 00:26

ngDeveloper

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Spent hours looking for a solution that would work. Thanks! – Robert Ngetich Aug 30 '16 at 10:36
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I wasted hours on this too. Pppppppppppppp. Software development, amaright? – ngDeveloper Sep 01 '16 at 19:35
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For exporting the path you may also edit the system environment variable; path = %appdata%/npm; – Mantra Oct 05 '17 at 10:42
Like Div Tiwari said, edit your system environment variables and then close your command line and reopen it. It will working. – Portekoi Sep 21 '18 at 12:55
Thanks a lot for the solution. In my case a folder $Appdata/npm/ was getting created which was leading to the confusion. – Sen Oct 12 '18 at 22:04

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 31 '22 at 16:28

I also faced this same issue.

After installing node.js(https://nodejs.org/en/download/) npm folder(in appdata folder) remain empty.

so, at this stage if you try to build/run angular project(ng build/ng serve), it will give error as:

The term 'ng' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

So, for fixing this issue install angular globally in your project with following command:

npm install -g @angular/cli

Now, there would be data in npm folder(node modules etc.) and ng command will run now.

Cannot get "npm install -g" to work on any packages (AppData/Roaming/npm always empty)

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