npm install error `not foundram Files/nodejs/npm: 3: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm:`

Question

I have installed Ubuntu Bash on Windows. I already have nodejs and npm on my windows machine at C:\Program Files\nodejs. In the bash shell in Windows, I am running a script which uses npm install command. The script is giving following error

: not foundram Files/nodejs/npm: 3: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm:
: not foundram Files/nodejs/npm: 5: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm:
/mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm: 6: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting "in")

I got this even after installing nodejs in Ubuntu on Windows, the solution is to restart the bash shell. — Rosdi Kasim, Jul 10 '18 at 20:25

score 155 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 07 '21 at 11:37

Note: Before following the steps below, first try to restart your shell.

You can install Node.js and NPM with your Windows PowerShell as well, so if you've done that it won't work properly for your Subsystem. That means you have to install it twice (Powershell and Subsystem) or decide on one thing.

If the preceding text, has not helped you, this is how to solve the problem:
Remove your current installations

sudo apt-get --purge remove node
("sudo apt autoremove node" if console is asking for it)
sudo apt-get --purge remove nodejs

Install node the right way. This is for version 14 (view current LTS version):

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Then install build tools so you can install add-ons for npm later

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential

Now you can type in

npm -v
node -v
Same thing: nodejs -v

to check whether Node.js and NPM are installed correctly. If it shows nothing, restart the shell. If it still shows the same error, restart the WSL/ PC or try with sudo npm -v

Here are two links that may also help you.
https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#debian-and-ubuntu-based-linux-distributions https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/blob/master/README.md#debinstall

Also, take a look at the Node Version Manager (NVM). With it, you can easily switch back and forth between versions.

As per Rosdi's comment above, following these steps and THEN restarting the Ubuntu Bash Shell worked for me. — karfus, Sep 26 '18 at 21:40
Installing sudo npm install -g npx and Refreshing the shell worked fine for me. Thanks! — Mauricio Toledo, Jul 04 '20 at 16:52

score 41 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 27 '18 at 09:31

41

The solution provided by phucanhapril on May 24, 2017 in this thread worked for me.

To summarise, edit ~/.profile and change your PATH to this:

PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:/usr/bin:$PATH"

(By default it does not include /usr/bin)

Then run:

source ~/.profile

I am not quite sure why npm doesn't work properly in the first place, or why /usr/bin isn't in PATH by default, but the solution worked for me.

edited Sep 27 '18 at 09:31

Wout

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answered Mar 27 '18 at 23:58

cbp

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I was having this problem on Windows Subsystem for Linux. It helped. Thanks! – Amiraslan Jan 19 '20 at 22:34

score 16 · Answer 3 · edited May 01 '19 at 11:34

16

I had the same problem to solve I installed "NVM" in my Subsystem

Follow these steps and see if it will solve for you:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.31.0/install.sh -o install_nvm.sh

bash install_nvm.sh

source ~/.profile

nvm install 11.13.0

edited May 01 '19 at 11:34

Jesse de gans

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answered Apr 09 '19 at 14:54

Elton José de Souza

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score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 01 '18 at 00:19

8

You can try sudo npm install it was a solution in my particular case.

answered Nov 01 '18 at 00:19

Gh111

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That should be avoided, since now you are installing things as root. You should only be installing things as current user, unless you have a good reason to install as the root user. – Andre M May 28 '21 at 18:33

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 30 '20 at 15:03

5

Linux command for install nodejs and npm

sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm

Set path in linux

export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

reference https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/3882

edited Dec 30 '20 at 15:03

Anatoly

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answered Aug 25 '20 at 02:37

Asad Zaman

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score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 12 '19 at 11:37

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curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

this is enough, if you still face the problem

node installation needs restart, close you ubuntu window and start again it will solve your problem :)

answered Jul 12 '19 at 11:37

Nikhil Sharma

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score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 10 '21 at 02:45

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On Visual Studio -> Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> Web Package Management -> make sure $(PATH) is above all the rest.

As long it is not located at the top of the list VS will try to use VS tools instead of npm.

You should also refer windows to the current npm version by following this screenshot, after try npm --version.

Changing npm path:

edited Apr 10 '21 at 02:45

Sabito stands with Ukraine

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answered Sep 10 '17 at 04:02

Or Assraf

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score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 10 '21 at 02:33

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I had the same problem. This is what I did.

Step 1. Type node -v and npm -v commands in Windows PowerShell and check if node and npm are properly installed

Step 2. Add this to the ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc file

export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

Step 3. Type source ~/.zshrc and/or source ~/.bashrc

Step 4. Type node -v and npm -v commands in bash or zsh shells and the correct versions should now appear

edited Apr 10 '21 at 02:33

Sabito stands with Ukraine

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answered Jan 04 '20 at 12:03

ZowWeb

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Can you explain what the 2nd step does? – Sabito stands with Ukraine Apr 10 '21 at 02:33

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 30 '20 at 14:47

2

I had this issue in both Debian and Ubuntu (though in Ubuntu the nvm command did work) when I was running Windows 10 version 1703. Then when I upgraded to version 1903 the problem disappeared.

answered Mar 30 '20 at 14:47

TheStoryCoder

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None of the rest worked for npm, but this did, although it took at hot minute to get nvm installed. – Michael Cook Jun 04 '20 at 02:59

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 25 '20 at 01:30

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I had the same error and it may seem silly, but I fixed it by simply typing exit in the console and opening it again.

answered Oct 25 '20 at 01:30

Daniel Díaz

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score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Mar 30 '19 at 04:15

I received this error when I modified my "~/.bashrc" file to shorten up the bash directory.

At first I had:

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
            PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\W\[\033[00m\]\$ '
    else
                PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u\h:\W\$'
        fi

....But then could not run any node operation. I rolled it back and the error stopped happening.

After some troubleshooting, I was able to fix the error by adding ~ before the $ on PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u\h:\W\~$

score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Apr 10 '21 at 02:44

I just read through many threads trying to do this. There is complete documentation for setting up node, nvm, and npm in wsl, here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/nodejs/setup-on-wsl2

If you already installed node and npm using the following commands,

sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm

NPM will not work. You must first uninstall them using:

sudo apt-get remove nodejs
sudo apt-get remove npm

Follow the guide to completely uninstalling here: How can I completely uninstall nodejs, npm and node in Ubuntu

Then reinstall from the windows guide referenced above. The windows guide has many other useful resources.

The Tldr to install(from Microsoft Docs):

sudo apt-get install curl

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash

nvm install --lts

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 10 '22 at 16:47

I had identical output to that in the question. It occurs because Ubuntu on WSL adds Windows paths to the bash shell, but of course the Windows executables do not work in bash.

I installed nvm, and from there installed node into bash. NVM works out all the paths so it works.

npm install error `not foundram Files/nodejs/npm: 3: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm:`

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