npm global path prefix

Question

I am being more cautious than usual because I have been confused by the behavior of npm in the past.

I am on a Mac and have installed node.js through brew install node.

Now that I want to run jslint.js on the command-line as the command jslint I find that the canonical way to accomplish this is sudo npm install -g jslint which ran successfully with this output:

$ sudo npm install -g jslint
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/jslint
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/jslint
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/jslint/-/jslint-0.1.9.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/jslint/-/jslint-0.1.9.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/nopt
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/nopt
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/nopt/-/nopt-1.0.10.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/nopt/-/nopt-1.0.10.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/abbrev
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/abbrev
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/abbrev/-/abbrev-l.0.4.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/abbrev/-/abbrev-1.0.4.tgz
/usr/local/share/npm/bin/jslint -> /usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/jslint/
bin/jslint.js
jslint@0.1.9 /usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/jslint
└── nopt@1.0.10 (abbrev@1.0.4)

Subsequently

$ jslint ply.js
zsh: command not found: jslint

due to /usr/local/share/npm/bin not being in my $PATH.

1) Why did brew not install global npm bin path to path? Maybe it did, but something zsh does is messing it up. Where might I be able to find that?
2) Should I do this? (Append :/usr/local/share/npm/bin to the exported $PATH at the bottom of my ~/.zshrc)

It seems like this isn't the right way to do it because if I install something else later (using Homebrew or something) I'll be needing to append it to my zsh startup script to set the path. I guess in this particular instance it's just a matter of the npm install -g not making the right symlinks in a "proper" location (like /usr/local/bin maybe).

I think what I will do is manually build out symlinks inside /usr/local/bin for any programs that I have trouble with and it should be good enough for my purposes.

Answer 1

Extending your PATH with:

export PATH=/usr/local/share/npm/bin:$PATH

isn't a terrible idea. Having said that, you shouldn't have to do it.

Run this:

npm config get prefix

The default on OS X is /usr/local, which means that npm will symlink binaries into /usr/local/bin, which should already be on your PATH (especially if you're using Homebrew).

So:

1. npm config set prefix /usr/local if it's something else, and
2. Don't use sudo with npm! According to the jslint docs, you should just be able to npm install it.

If you installed npm as sudo (sudo brew install), try reinstalling it with plain ol' brew install. Homebrew is supposed to help keep you sudo-free.

Answer 2

Try running:

PATH=$PATH:~/npm/bin

and then do a test by running express in the command line. This worked for me.