Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink 'D:\Sources\**\node_modules\fsevents\node_modules\abbrev\package.json'

Question

I just updated npm to 5.4.0.
Now, Whenever I want install a npm package I get the following error:

D:\Sources\DownloadCms\Md.Download\Web.Angular>npm install mds.angular.datetimepicker@latest --save npm ERR! path D:\Sources\DownloadCms\Md.Download\Web.Angular\node_modules\fsevents\node_modules\abbrev\package.json npm ERR! code EPERM npm ERR! errno -4048 npm ERR! syscall unlink npm ERR! Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink 'D:\Sources\DownloadCms\Md.Download\Web.Angular\node_modules\fsevents\node_modules\abbrev\package.json' npm ERR!     at Error (native) npm ERR!  { Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink 'D:\Sources\DownloadCms\Md.Download\Web.Angular\node_modules\fsevents\node_modules\abbrev\package.jso n' npm ERR!     at Error (native) npm ERR!   stack: 'Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink \'D:\\Sources\\DownloadCms\\Md.Download\\Web.Angular\\node_modules\\fsevents\\node_modules\\ab brev\\package.json\'\n    at Error (native)', npm ERR!   errno: -4048, npm ERR!   code: 'EPERM', npm ERR!   syscall: 'unlink', npm ERR!   path: 'D:\\Sources\\DownloadCms\\Md.Download\\Web.Angular\\node_modules\\fsevents\\node_modules\\abbrev\\package.json' } npm ERR! npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.  npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: npm ERR!     C:\Users\Mohammad\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2017-09-03T03_25_50_432Z-debug.log 

I'm dead sure, run CMD as administrator.

Also I checked D:\Sources\DownloadCms\Md.Download\Web.Angular\node_modules\fsevents\node_modules\abbrev\package.json\, package.json is not exist in path !

Edit: Upgrade to v5.4.1, still get the same error, even cannot work around with --no-optional :-(

Answer 1

I was able to fix this by running the command prompt/bash as admin and closing VSCode! Seems like VSCode was locking some files. Potentially something else could be locking these files for you.

Answer 2

It is an npm 5.4.0 issue https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/18287

Workarounds are

• downgrade to 5.3
• try running with --no-optional, i.e. npm install --no-optional