Error: "pre" versions of node cannot be installed, use the --nodedir flag instead

Question

I'm trying to install opencv for node. I don't think this has anything to do with opencv directly, rather it has to do with node-gyp. I had success in installing opencv on my mac but when I try to do the exact same on Ubuntu server I get the following error after doing 'npm install opnecv':

npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/opencv
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/opencv

> [email protected] preinstall /home/demo/node_modules/opencv
> node-gyp rebuild

gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: "pre" versions of node cannot be installed, use the --nodedir flag instead
gyp ERR! stack     at install (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/install.js:69:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at Object.commands.forEach.self.commands.(anonymous function) [as install] (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/node-gyp.js:56:37)
gyp ERR! stack     at getNodeDir (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:181:20)
gyp ERR! stack     at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:101:9
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:538:7)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:96:17)
gyp ERR! stack     at maybeClose (child_process.js:638:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process._handle.onexit (child_process.js:680:5)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-29-generic
gyp ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/node-gyp" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /home/demo/node_modules/opencv
gyp ERR! node -v v0.8.13-pre
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.7.1
gyp ERR! not ok 
npm ERR! [email protected] preinstall: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! `sh "-c" "node-gyp rebuild"` failed with 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] preinstall script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the opencv package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls opencv
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-29-generic
npm ERR! command "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "opencv"
npm ERR! cwd /home/demo
npm ERR! node -v v0.8.13-pre
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.63
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/demo/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

I also tried downloading the source code and doing 'node-gyp rebuild' with similar results:

demo@camera:~/src/node$ node-gyp rebuild
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using [email protected]
gyp info using [email protected] | linux | x64
gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: "pre" versions of node cannot be installed, use the --nodedir flag instead
gyp ERR! stack     at install (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/install.js:69:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at Object.commands.forEach.self.commands.(anonymous function) [as install] (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/node-gyp.js:56:37)
gyp ERR! stack     at getNodeDir (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:181:20)
gyp ERR! stack     at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:101:9
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:538:7)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:96:17)
gyp ERR! stack     at maybeClose (child_process.js:638:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process._handle.onexit (child_process.js:680:5)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-29-generic
gyp ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/node-gyp" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /home/demo/src/node
gyp ERR! node -v v0.8.13-pre
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.7.1
gyp ERR! not ok 

Has anyone had this issue before?

Answer 1

I was also able to solve this by upgrading my version of node to a stable version (e.g. not a "pre" version - your version is 0.8.13-pre) with the following:

sudo npm install -g n # install node version manager "n"
sudo n stable # install the latest stable version of node

Answer 2

Use npm install --nodedir=/path/to/node opencv, where /path/to/node is a path to current nodejs source code.

It happens because node-gyp can't find source to your custom build, and here is the discussion about it: https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp/issues/86

You can commonly fix this by creating a symbolic link if you have super user permissions.

chmod a+r /path/to/node -R
cd /usr/lib
sudo ln -s /path/to/node node

Then npm install again, and it will likely find it. Don't do this if /usr/lib/node already exists, as other software may depend on it.