npm install errors with Error: ENOENT, chmod

Question

I am trying to globally install an npm module I just published. Every time I try to install, either from npm or the folder, I get this error.

npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, chmod '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/takeapeek/lib/cmd.js'
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <[e-mail]>

npm ERR! System Linux 3.8.0-19-generic
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "-g" "takeapeek"
npm ERR! cwd /home/giodamlio
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.6
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.6
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/takeapeek/lib/cmd.js
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! errno 34
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/giodamlio/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

I am using sudo and I have triple checked everything in the package everything should work. I did some searching around, and saw a couple of similer cases none of which have been resolved. Here is what I tried.

• Upgrade npm (sudo npm install -g npm)
• Clear the global npm cache (sudo npm cache clear)
• Clear the user npm cache (npm cache clear)

I noticed that the error had to do with the file I am linking to the path, specifically when npm tried to do a chmod. That shouldn't be a problem, my lib/cli.js has normal permissions, and npm has superuser permissions during this install.

After digging through the npm docs I found an option that would stop npm from making the bin links(--no-bin-links), when I tried the install with it, it worked fine.

So what's the deal? Is this some weird fringe case bug that has no solution yet?

Edit: For reference, here is the module I uploaded

Answer 1

I think your compiled coffee script is missing from the published npm package. Try writing a prepublish command.

Answer 2

I encountered similar behavior after upgrading to npm 6.1.0. It seemed to work once, but then I got into a state with this error while trying to install a package that was specified by path on the filesystem:

npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! errno -2
npm ERR! syscall rename

The following things did not fix the problem:

• rm -rf node_modules
• npm cache clean (gave npm ERR! As of npm@5, the npm cache self-heals....use 'npm cache verify' instead.)
• npm cache verify
• rm -rf ~/.npm

How I fixed the problem:

• rm package-lock.json

Answer 3

I ran into a similar problem,

npm cache clean

solved it.

Answer 4

In my case (multiple code ENOENT errno 34) problem was with ~/.npm/ directory access. Inside it there were some subdirs having root:root rights, which were causing problems while I run commands as normal user (without sudo). So I changed ownership of all subdirs and files inside ~/.npm/ dir into my local user and group. That did the trick on my Ubuntu (on Mac should work too).

$ sudo chown yourusername.yourgroupname ~/.npm/ -R

You should know your user name, right? If no then run $ whoami and substitute your group name with it too, like this:

$ sudo chown johnb.johnb ~/.npm/ -R

EDIT:

Test case:

From my local account /home/johnb I npm-installed globally some generator for yeoman, like this:

$ sudo npm install -g generator-laravel

Problem nature:

Above action caused some dependencies being installed inside ~/.npm/ dir, having root:root ownership (because of sudo ...). Evidently npm does not run as local user (or change dependencies subdirs ownership afterwards) when pulling dependencies and writing them to a local user subdir ~/.npm/. As long as npm would be so careless against fundamental unix filesystem security issues the problem would reoccur.

Solution:

1. Continuosly check if ~/.npm/ contains subdirs with ownership (and/or permissions) other than your local user account, especially when you install or update something with sodo (root). If so, change the ownership inside ~/.npm/ to a local user recursively.

2. Ask npm, bower, grunt, ... community that they address this issue as I described it above.

Answer 5

1. Install latest version of node
2. Run: npm cache clean
3. Run: npm install cordova -g

Answer 6

I was getting the error "Error: ENOENT, stat 'C:\Users\userName\AppData\Roaming\npm'. But there was no such directory. Created the directory and the npm install started working