Error installing yeoman

Question

Installing Yeoman on my OSX machine results in the following error:

paulh16$ npm install -g yo
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/yo
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/yo
npm ERR! Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/yo'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/yo']
npm ERR!   errno: 3,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/yo',
npm ERR!   fstream_type: 'Directory',
npm ERR!   fstream_path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/yo',
npm ERR!   fstream_class: 'DirWriter',
npm ERR!   fstream_stack: 
npm ERR!    [ '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23',
npm ERR!      '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53',
npm ERR!      'Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)' ] }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! System Darwin 13.0.0
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "-g" "yo"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/paulh16/.rvm/lib
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.22
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.14
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/yo
npm ERR! fstream_path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/yo
npm ERR! fstream_type Directory
npm ERR! fstream_class DirWriter
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno 3
npm ERR! stack Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/yo'
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/paulh16/.rvm/lib/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

I believe the problem is that bash is looking for npm within the Ruby Version Manager, which is where I installed node and npm originally. However, I removed both from RVM and installed from the Node website. I also adjusted my .bash_profile:

PS1="\u$ "
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH"
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/mysql/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"

if [ -f ~/.git-completion.bash ]; then
   source ~/.git-completion.bash
fi

[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM$

I don't understand why the Yeoman installation is failing.

Answer 1

This solved the issue for me. Setting the permission on the npm folder in your home directory was the fix for me.

sudo chown -R `whoami` ~/.npm

Answer 2

The npm command fails because you need to be root to edit files under /usr/.

You should properly configure npm, see this relevant SO answer:

$ echo prefix = ~/.node >> ~/.npmrc

Answer 3

try

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local

and this kind of problem would be solved forever

it's not encouraged to npm with sudo