npm throws error without sudo

Question

I just installed node and npm through the package on nodejs org and whenever I try to search or install something with npm it throws the following error  unless I sudo the command   I have a feeling this is a permissions issue   I am already the admin   npm ERR  Error  EACCES  open   Users chietala  npm - all  cache json  npm ERR      Error  EACCES  open   Users chietala  npm - all  cache json   npm ERR    errno  3  npm ERR    code   EACCES   npm ERR    path    Users chietala  npm - all  cache json    npm ERR   npm ERR  Please try running this command again as root Administrator   npm ERR  System Darwin 12 2 0 npm ERR  command  node    usr local bin npm   search   bower  npm ERR  cwd  Users chietala npm ERR  node -v v0 10 4 npm ERR  npm -v 1 2 18 npm ERR  path  Users chietala  npm - all  cache json npm ERR  code EACCES npm ERR  errno 3 npm ERR  stack Error  EACCES  open   Users chietala  npm - all  cache json  npm ERR   npm ERR  Additional logging details can be found in  npm ERR       Users chietala npm-debug log npm ERR  not ok code 0

User · Answer

On Mac OS X  when installing with Homebrew s brew install npm  the installation path is  usr local share npm  with both bin  and lib node modules  subfolders   Running this command to change to owner to your currently logged in user should fix it all up  and allow you to install global NPM packages without sudo   sudo chown -R  USER    npm  usr local share npm    osx homebrew

User · Answer

Watch OUT    Watch OUT    Watch OUT      chown or chmod is NOT the solution  because of security-risk   Instead do this  do   First check  where npm point to  if you call   npm config get prefix   If  usr is returned  you can do the following   mkdir    npm-global export NPM CONFIG PREFIX    npm-global export PATH  PATH    npm-global bin   This create a npm-Directory in your Home-Directory and point npm to it   To got this changes permanent  you have to add the export-command to your  bashrc   echo -e  export NPM CONFIG PREFIX    npm-global nexport PATH   PATH    npm-global bin   gt  gt     bashrc

User · Answer

Other answers are suggesting to change ownerships or permissions of system directories to a specific user  I highly disadvise from doing so  this can become very awkward and might mess up the entire system    Here is a more generic and safer approach that supports multi-user as well   Create a new group for node-users and add the required users to this group  Then set the ownership of node-dependant files directories to this group     Create new group sudo groupadd nodegrp     Add user to group  logname is a variable and gets replaced by the currently logged in user  sudo usermod -a -G nodegrp  logname     Instant access to group without re-login newgrp nodegrp    Check group - nodegrp should be listed as well now groups    Change group of node modules  node  npm to new group  sudo chgrp -R nodegrp  usr lib node modules  sudo chgrp nodegrp  usr bin node sudo chgrp nodegrp  usr bin npm     You may want to change a couple of more files  like grunt etc  in your  usr bin  directory     Now you can easily install your modules as user  npm install -g generator-angular   Some modules  grunt  bower  yo etc   will still need to be installed as root  This is because they create symlinks in  user bin    Edit  3 years later I d recommend to use Node Version  Manager  It safes you a lot of time and trouble

User · Answer

Best solution would be this which is provided by npm documentation     For Ubuntu suggested solution is Option 2  Brief steps  Make a directory for global installations  mkdir    npm-global    Configure npm to use the new directory path  npm config set prefix     npm-global  npm config get prefix can help you to verify if prefix was updated or not  The result would be  lt Your Home Directory   npm-global  Open or create a    profile file and add this line  export PATH    npm-global bin  PATH    Back on the command line  update your system variables  source    profile  Instead of steps 2-4 you can also use the corresponding ENV variable  e g  if you don t want to modify    profile      NPM CONFIG PREFIX    npm-global    For Mac suggested solution is Option 3  On Mac OS you can avoid this problem altogether by using the Homebrew package manager    brew install node

User · Answer

ISSUE  You  the user  don t have the right set of permissions for the directory   The instant way out is to run the npm install using sudo  but this may give you the same error  or improper installation   AND changing directory ownership is not a good option  a temporary patch     Solution Suggestion  Change npm s Default Directory  from official docs   Back-up your computer before moving forward    optional  In case you have a erroneous installation  first uninstall it   npm uninstall  lt package-name gt     use sudo if you used it while installation npm cache verify    or  npm cache clean for npm version below 5 x x     Make a directory for global installations    mkdir    npm-global Configure npm to use the new directory path    npm config set prefix     npm-global  Open or create a    profile or    bash profile file and add this line    export PATH    npm-global bin  PATH Back on the command line  update your system variables  or restart the terminal    source    profile  optional  Test  Download a package globally without using sudo   npm install -g jshint

User · Answer

As if we need more answers here  but anyway    Sindre Sorus has a guide Install npm packages globally without sudo on OS X and Linux outlining how to cleanly install without messing with permissions       Here is a way to install packages globally for a given user          Create a directory for your global packages  mkdir    HOME   npm-packages     Reference this directory for future usage in your  bashrc  zshrc   NPM PACKAGES    HOME   npm-packages     Indicate to npm where to store your globally installed package  In your  HOME  npmrc file add   prefix   HOME   npm-packages    Ensure node will find them  Add the following to your  bashrc  zshrc   NODE PATH   NPM PACKAGES lib node modules  NODE PATH     Ensure you ll find installed binaries and man pages  Add the following to your  bashrc  zshrc   PATH   NPM PACKAGES bin  PATH    Unset manpath so we can inherit from  etc manpath via the  manpath    command unset MANPATH   delete if you already modified MANPATH elsewhere in your config MANPATH   NPM PACKAGES share man   manpath            Check out npm-g nosudo for doing the above steps automagically   Checkout the source of this guide for the latest updates

User · Answer

sudo chown -R  whoami   usr local lib

User · Answer

I had a similar problem at NPM modules won  39 t install globally without sudo  the issue was that when i installed node i did it with sudo via chris lea ppa repo  My solution was to uninstall node and then install it this way  Download latest stable node sources from nodejs org  in my case node-v0 10 20 tar gz  tar -zxf node-v0 10 20 tar gz  uncompress sources cd node-v0 10 20  enter uncompressed folder sudo chown  USER -R  usr local   configure --prefix  usr local  amp  amp  make  amp  amp  make install  PD  If you don t want to change ownership of the  usr local folder  you can install it somewhere you already own  The problem of this approach is that you will have to bind the installation folder with the bash command line so that we can use the node command later on  mkdir   opt   configure --prefix   opt  amp  amp  make  amp  amp  make install echo  export PATH   opt bin   PATH    gt  gt     bashrc  or    profile or    bash profile or    zshenv depending on the current Operative System  With either of those approaches  you will be able to do the following without using sudo  npm install -g module to install

User · Answer

This is the solution I utilized and worked   I tried utilizing whoami never worked   sudo chown -R  USER  usr local lib node modules  then  sudo chown -R  USER  usr local bin npm  then  sudo chown -R  USER  usr local bin node

User · Answer

This is how I solved the issue on Windows 8 1    Go to your nodejs install  usually C  Program Files nodejs  Right click node modules folder and go to properties Click the Security tab and advanced At the top you will see  Owner  SYSTEM   click change Enter the user you want permissions for and click Ok Check the box at the bottom of the advanced settings  Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object  and click ok Do whatever npm install update you need

User · Answer

For Mac  adopted from Christoper Will s answer   Mac OS X 10 9 4     System Preference   Users  amp  Groups    unlock    press         New Account    Group     Account Name   nodegrp    After creating the group  tick the user to be included in this group    sudo chgrp -R nodegrp  usr local lib node modules        sudo chgrp nodegrp  usr bin node       sudo chgrp nodegrp  usr bin npm       sudo chown -R   whoami  nodegrp    npm

User · Answer

This looks like a permissions issue in your home directory  To reclaim ownership of the  npm directory execute   sudo chown -R   whoami     npm

User · Answer

What to me seems like the best option is the one suggested in the npm documentation  which is to first check where global node modules are installed by default by running npm config get prefix  If you get  like I do on Trusty   usr  you might want to change it to a folder that you can safely own without messing things up the way I did   To do that  choose or create a new folder in your system  You may want to have it in your home directory or  like me  under  usr local for consistency because I m also a Mac user  I prefer not to need to look into different places depending on the machine I happen to be in front of   Another good reason to do that is the fact that the  usr local folder is probably already in your PATH  unless you like to mess around with your PATH  but chances are your newly-created folder isn t and you d need to add it to the PATH yourself on your  bash-profile or  bashrc file   Long story short  I changed the default location of the global modules with npm config set prefix   usr local   created the folder  usr local lib node modules  it will be used by npm  and changed permissions for the folders used by npm with the command    sudo chown -R   whoami    npm config get prefix   lib node modules bin share    Now you can globally install any module safely  Hope this helps

User · Answer

For me  execute only  sudo chown -R   whoami     npm   doesn t work  Then  I execute too  sudo chown -R   whoami   usr lib node modules  sudo chown -R   whoami   usr bin node sudo chown -R   whoami   usr bin npm   And all works fine

User · Answer

TL DR  always use sudo -i or sudo -H when running npm install to install global packages    When you use npm  it downloads packages to your user home directory   When you run as sudo  npm installs files to the same directory  but now they are owned by root  So this is what happens to absolutely every single person who has ever used npm   install some local packages without issue using npm install foo install global package using sudo install -g foo-cli without issue attempt to install local package with npm install bar get frustrated at the npm designers now that you have to go chmod a directory again  When you use the -i or -H option with sudo  your home directory will be root s home directory   Any global installs will cache packages to  root  npm instead of root-owned files at  home me  npm  Just always use sudo -i or sudo -H when running npm install to install global packages and your npm permissions problems will melt away  For good  http   hood ie blog why-you-shouldnt-use-sudo-with-npm html -- q v  the accepted answer for fixing an already messed up npm

User · Answer

Changing the owner on  system-global  folders is a hack  On a fresh install  I would configure NPM to use an already writable location for  user-global  programs     npm config set prefix   npm   Then make sure you add that folder to your path   export PATH   PATH  HOME npm bin    See  ErikAndreas  answer to NPM modules won t install globally without sudo  and longer step-by-step guide by  sindresorhus with also sets  MANPATH

User · Answer

Problem  You do not have permission to write to the directories that npm uses to store global packages and commands   Solution  Allow permission for npm   Open a terminal      command   spacebar then type  terminal    Enter this command    sudo chown -R   whoami    npm config get prefix   lib node modules bin share     Note  this will require your password    This solution allows permission to ONLY the directories needed  keeping the other directories nice and safe

User · Answer

you could try this  works on ubuntu and mac  sudo chown -R   whoami   usr local lib node modules

User · Answer

John Papa points to the history and reasoning behind this issue and gives a solid fix   John Papa s steps are to     Use brew to install node without npm Update your  bash profile  bashrc to let npm and node know where to install and find packages Use brew to update node and npm to update itself   Hope this helps the curious

User · Answer

Also you will need the write permission in node modules directory     sudo chown -R  USER  usr local lib node modules

User · Answer

Another great fix here to configure NPM properly  run the following commands    npm config set prefix     npm packages  PATH  PATH  HOME  npm packages bin  export PATH

User · Answer

I ran into this issue  and while it s true that    npm should be owned by your user  npm was not installing the modules there  What actually solved my issue is this command  npm config set prefix    npm  It will make sure that all your global installation will go under this prefix  And it s important that your user owns this directory

User · Answer

I encountered this when installing Recess  https   github com twitter recess  to compile my CSS for Bootstrap 3   When installing recess   -npm install recess -g    You need to unlock permissions in your home directory  like Noah says   sudo chown -R  whoami     npm  You also need write permissions to the node modules directory  like Xilo says  so if it still isn t working  try   sudo chown -R  whoami   usr local lib node modules  If you are still seeing errors  you may also need to correct  usr local permissions   sudo chown -R  whoami   usr local    Please note that as indicated in this post  usr local  isn t actually a system dir if you are on a Mac  so  this answer is actually perfectly  safe  for Mac users  However  if you are on Linux  see Christopher Will s answer below for a multi-user friendly  system dir safe  but more complex  solution

User · Answer

The official documentation on how to fix npm install permissions with an EACCES error is located at https   docs npmjs com getting-started fixing-npm-permissions    I encountered this problem after a fresh install of node using the  pkg installer on OSX  There are some great answers here  but I didn t see a link to npmjs com yet   Option 1  Change the permission to npm s default directory   Find the path to npm s directory   npm config get prefix    For many systems  this will be  usr local   WARNING  If the displayed path is just  usr  switch to Option 2    Change the owner of npm s directories to the name of the current user  your username     sudo chown -R   whoami    npm config get prefix   lib node modules bin share    This changes the permissions of the sub-folders used by npm and some other tools  lib node modules  bin  and share     Option 2  Change npm s default directory to another directory  There are times when you do not want to change ownership of the default directory that npm uses  i e   usr  as this could cause some problems  for example if you are sharing the system with other users   Instead  you can configure npm to use a different directory altogether  In our case  this will be a hidden directory in our home folder    Make a directory for global installations   mkdir    npm-global  Configure npm to use the new directory path   npm config set prefix     npm-global   Open or create a    profile file and add this line   export PATH    npm-global bin  PATH  Back on the command line  update your system variables   source    profile

User · Answer

In my case it s because of the permission of   tmp So I do   sudo chown -R  USER   tmp   And it s OK

User · Answer

In case sudo chown -R   whoami     npm didn t work for you  or you need a non terminal command solution   The issue is that your user account does not have write permission to node modules folder  so you can do the following    Open finder and press cmd   shift   g this will open go to folder with url Write the following path  usr local lib node modules and press go Right click on node modules folder and choose Get Info Scroll down to sharing  amp  permissions section Unlock to be able to make changes  Press   and add your user account  Make sure that you choose Read  amp  Write in privilege drop down   Now you should be able to install packages without sudo and permission issues should be solved

User · Answer

Actually  I was also having the same problem  I was running Ubuntu  Mine problem arises because I d lost my public key of the Ubuntu  Even updating my system was not happening  It was giving GPG error  In that case  you can regain your key by using this command   sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver ubuntu com --recv-keys  lt key in GPG error gt    After that npm works fine

User · Answer

I Solve it by changing the owner from root to my user-name  sudo chown -R me me  home me  config configstore   change me with your user-name and group

User · Answer

All the above is not necessary   The issue I was having was I was using the -g when I was running NPM  I couldn t work out how I wasn t getting a  npm module  folder created in my project   The solution is to run  NPM init  This creates a  package json  and the  npm module  folder where all subsequent modules will be loaded into  When running npm DO NOT use -g use -s to update your  package json  file    Here is a good video explaining

User · Answer

I set my user account as the owner of the  usr local directory  so that can just issue normal commands in there   sudo chown -R  USER  usr local  Reference  http   howtonode org introduction-to-npm

User · Answer

When you run npm install -g somepackage  you may get an EACCES error asking you to run the command again as root Administrator  It s a permissions issue   It s easy to fix  open your terminal  Applications   Utilities   Terminal   sudo chown -R  USER  usr local lib node modules      I strongly recommend you to not use the package management with sudo  sudo npm -g install something   because you can get some issues later     Reference  http   foohack com 2010 08 intro-to-npm

User · Answer

I like to use ubuntu groups to achieve this instead of changing owner  Its quite simple    First install nodejs and npm using apt-get  sudo apt-get update  amp  amp  sudo apt-get install nodejs npm Figure out who is logged in i e username  run following command to see it in terminal  whoami You can see the list of groups you are assigned by using a very simple command  normally the first group is your username itself  groups Run following to allow access to logged in user  sudo chmod 777 -R  usr local  amp  amp  sudo chgrp   whoami  -R  usr local Update npm and nodejs  npm install -g npm   You are allset  your user can run npm commands without sudo  You can also refer to this link https   askubuntu com a 1115373 687804

User · Answer

use below command while installing packages  sudo npm install --unsafe-perm true --allow-root

User · Answer

I found that if you only sudo -s  it just starts up a shell with root permissions as a one step  and it really works for me  I don t know if it s a good practice or not   I hope it helps   Reference  https   apple stackexchange com posts 14423 revisions

User · Answer

Yves M  s answer was very similar to my solution   Here are the commands I used  which were slightly different from his   curl -o- https   raw githubusercontent com creationix nvm v0 31 0 install sh   bash   Then query for the latest version   nvm ls-remote   Then install the newest version   nvm install YOUR VERSION HERE   example  nvm install v5 8 0

User · Answer

Permissions you used when installing Node will be required when doing things like writing in your npm directory  npm link  npm install -g  etc    You probably ran node installation with root permissions  that s why the global package installation is asking you to be root   Solution 1  NVM  Don t hack with permissions  install node the right way   On a development machine  you should not install and run node with root permissions  otherwise things like npm link  npm install -g will need the same permissions  NVM  Node Version Manager  allows you to install Node without root permissions and also allows you to install many versions of Node to play easily with them   Perfect for development   Uninstall Node  root permission will probably be required   This might help you  Then install NVM following instructions on this page  Install Node via NVM  nvm install node  Now npm link  npm install -g will no longer require you to be root  Edit  See also https   docs npmjs com getting-started fixing-npm-permissions  Solution 2  Install with webi webi fetches the official node package from the node release API  It does not require a package manager  does not require sudo or root access  and will not change any system permissions  curl -s https   webinstall dev node   bash  Or  on Windows 10  curl exe -sA  quot MS quot  https   webinstall dev node   powershell  Like nvm  you can easily switch node versions  webi node v12  Unlike nvm  or Solution 3 below   the npm packages will be separate  you will need to re-install when you switch node versions   Without changing npm configuration  you can install globally  npm install -g prettier  This solution is essentially an automated version of other solutions that install to  HOME   Solution 3  Install packages globally for a given user  Don t hack with permissions  install npm packages globally the right way   If you are on OSX or Linux  you can create a user dedicated directory for your global package and setup npm and node to know how to find globally installed packages  Check out this great article for step by step instructions on installing npm modules globally without sudo  See also  npm s documentation on Fixing npm permissions

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