Fail to install npm package “npm ERR! errno -4048”

Question

I'm trying to install npm package (node-xmpp-server) but it fail to install. previously when I'm trying to install a package that is install globally instead of locally, but now it's not installing at all.
Plz Help me.

npm install node-xmpp-server
error is: npm ERR! errno -4048
npm ERR! Windows_NT 6.3.9600
npm ERR! argv "c:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" "c:\Program
Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js" "install" "node-xmpp-server"

npm ERR! node v0.12.4
npm ERR! npm v2.10.1
npm ERR! path c:\Users\Jaseem Abbas\Documents\node_modules\node- xmpp-server\examples
npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! errno -4048
npm ERR! Error: EPERM, unlink 'c:\Users\Jaseem Abbas\Documents\node_modules\node-xmpp-server\examples'

npm ERR! at Error (native)
npm ERR! { [Error: EPERM, unlink 'c:\Users\Jaseem Abbas\Documents\node_modules\node-xmpp-server\examples']

npm ERR! errno: -4048,
npm ERR! code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR! path: 'c:\Users\Jaseem Abbas\Documents\node_modules\node-xmpp-server\examples' } npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! error rolling back Error: EPERM, unlink 'c:\Users\Jaseem Abbas\Documents\node_modules\node-xmpp-server\examples'

npm ERR! error rolling back at Error (native)
npm ERR! error rolling back { [Error: EPERM, unlink 'c:\Users\Jaseem
Abbas\Documents\node_modules\node-xmpp-server\examples']
npm ERR! error rolling back errno: -4048,
npm ERR! error rolling back code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR! error rolling back path: 'c:\Users\Jaseem Abbas\Documents\node_modules\node-xmpp-server\examples' }

Answer 1

I had the same problem...here is the fix:

install nodejs in your local directory that does not need admin privilege.

Answer 2

Kill whatever process is locking your files

It seems like this kind of error can be caused by a file permissions lock - I experienced something very similar (the same ERRNO: -4048) when installing whatwg-fetch.

I found that a Visual Studio instance I had open at the same time was acquiring all kinds of files which it didn't need. Once I closed that down, the install worked perfectly.

This may be a quickly-checked possible cause to eliminate before moving on to more drastic measures...

Answer 3

Delete package-lock.json

and try again

Answer 4

For me @Oly's solution worked, I'll just add for Angular folks that it was ng serve -o that had locked the files. Yep - don't run npm install while ng serve is running for the project.

Answer 5

This is a long standing issue with npm that they seem to have no interest in fixing. Various things others are mentioning will work sometimes (e.g. closing running programs, downgrading the version, etc...). It's been generally limited to Windows installations, though I've even had it happen a bit in Linux lately as well.

Answer 6

if you still have troubles with this error and maybe you upgrade the node version to 5.4 > ... that version presents an error. here the solution that basically consist in downgrade node version

In Windows will be:

npm install -g npm@5.3

That's works for me.