npm install causes errors like npm ERR! tar.unpack

Question

Installing Grunt as in the Bootstrap documentation shown, I first installed grunt-cli globally with npm install -g grunt-cli and now I'm trying to execute npm install, but only getting errors:

root@devvm:/var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap# npm install
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/wrappy/1.0.1/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/wrappy/1.0.1/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/brace-expansion/1.1.0/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/delayed-stream/0.0.5/package.tgz
npm WARN optional dep failed, continuing form-data@0.1.4
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/is-property/1.0.2/package.tgz
npm WARN optional dep failed, continuing request@2.54.0
npm ERR! Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v0.10.35
npm ERR! npm  v2.7.4
npm ERR! path /var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/node_modules/grunt-saucelabs/node_modules/sauce-tunnel/node_modules/request/node_modules/form-data/node_modules/combined-stream/node_modules/delayed-stream/test/integration/test-delayed-http-upload.js
npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! errno 50

npm ERR! Error: EPERM, open '/var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/node_modules/grunt-saucelabs/node_modules/sauce-tunnel/node_modules/request/node_modules/form-data/node_modules/combined-stream/node_modules/delayed-stream/test/integration/test-delayed-http-upload.js'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EPERM, open '/var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/node_modules/grunt-saucelabs/node_modules/sauce-tunnel/node_modules/request/node_modules/form-data/node_modules/combined-stream/node_modules/delayed-stream/test/integration/test-delayed-http-upload.js']
npm ERR!   errno: 50,
npm ERR!   code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR!   path: '/var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/node_modules/grunt-saucelabs/node_modules/sauce-tunnel/node_modules/request/node_modules/form-data/node_modules/combined-stream/node_modules/delayed-stream/test/integration/test-delayed-http-upload.js' }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v0.10.35
npm ERR! npm  v2.7.4
npm ERR! path npm-debug.log.ba707f2a7a688e388708bbe88e2dd4ed
npm ERR! code ETXTBSY
npm ERR! errno 62

npm ERR! ETXTBSY, rename 'npm-debug.log.ba707f2a7a688e388708bbe88e2dd4ed'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/npm-debug.log

I've just copied the project in a non-shared folder and started npm install again. And it worked. So, it seems to be a shared folder issue. But what exactly? Symlinks are enabled for this shared folder and I started the VM as admin (it helped, when I had similar issues installing Bower).

What is causing these errors and how to solve this problem?

Environment: VirtualBox with Debian guest system and Windows 7 host system.

EDIT

Now (I think after I've successfully executed npm install in a non-shared folder) I'm geting different errors:

When I start the VM in the common way:

root@devvm:/var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap# npm install
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/delayed-stream/0.0.5/package.tgz
npm WARN optional dep failed, continuing form-data@0.1.4
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/wrappy/1.0.1/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/wrappy/1.0.1/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/brace-expansion/1.1.0/package.tgz
npm ERR! Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v0.10.35
npm ERR! npm  v2.7.4
npm ERR! path ../semver/bin/semver
npm ERR! code UNKNOWN
npm ERR! errno -1

npm ERR! UNKNOWN, symlink '../semver/bin/semver'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
npm ERR! Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v0.10.35
npm ERR! npm  v2.7.4
npm ERR! path npm-debug.log.428531818e2d916d5ae79bdf94dd73b3
npm ERR! code ETXTBSY
npm ERR! errno 62

npm ERR! ETXTBSY, rename 'npm-debug.log.428531818e2d916d5ae79bdf94dd73b3'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/npm-debug.log

When I start the VM as Administrator:

root@devvm:/var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap# npm install
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/wrappy/1.0.1/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/wrappy/1.0.1/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/delayed-stream/0.0.5/package.tgz
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/brace-expansion/1.1.0/package.tgz
npm WARN optional dep failed, continuing form-data@0.1.4
npm ERR! Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v0.10.35
npm ERR! npm  v2.7.4
npm ERR! path /var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/node_modules/grunt-contrib-qunit/node_modules/grunt-lib-phantomjs/node_modules/phantomjs/node_modules/fs-extra/node_modules/rimraf/node_modules/glob/node_modules/once/node_modules/wrappy
npm ERR! code UNKNOWN
npm ERR! errno -1

npm ERR! UNKNOWN, mkdir '/var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/node_modules/grunt-contrib-qunit/node_modules/grunt-lib-phantomjs/node_modules/phantomjs/node_modules/fs-extra/node_modules/rimraf/node_modules/glob/node_modules/once/node_modules/wrappy'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
npm ERR! Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v0.10.35
npm ERR! npm  v2.7.4
npm ERR! path npm-debug.log.0bb66467f3aae813a34e03a797f8da19
npm ERR! code ETXTBSY
npm ERR! errno 62

npm ERR! ETXTBSY, rename 'npm-debug.log.0bb66467f3aae813a34e03a797f8da19'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /var/www/axit/portfolio/public/bower_components/bootstrap/npm-debug.log

Answer 1

Try doing sudo npm cache clean. But It looks the problem is the path is too long for windows (260byte limit) so you can't share the directory.

I tried using fenestrate but it didn't work out for me. You may also want to check this entry.

Answer 2

Ok I see the solution

 sudo npm cache clean

Then

sudo npm install -g grunt grunt-cli

I did this on MacOS

Answer 3

In my case I tried install modules inside vagrant, nothing above didn't work, so I tried install it on host (OSX) and it worked.

Answer 4

I had a similar error and the following did not immediately resolve the issue:

npm cache clean
rm -rf node_modules
npm install

It turns out I had run out of disk space on my virtual machine. After allocating some more space and running above commands everything worked as expected.

Answer 5

Make sure your hard drive is not full. That was my case.

Answer 6

To me npm cache clean didn't work. However removing the problematic directory (npm remove) and then simply reinstalling the package did!