firebase-tools fails to load via terminal install on macOS

Question

Trying to install firebase-tool for CLI. Getting failures.

running on macOS

I have seen suggestions like the following ...

Troubling with installing firebase-tools

I tried $ sudo npm install -g firebase-tools

Using 'sudo' gets past the error issues trying to access directories. but still crashes

The troubling bit seems to be this

 node-pre-gyp ERR! Tried to download(undefined):       https://storage.googleapis.com/grpc-precompiled-binaries/node/grpc/v1.4.1/node-v57-darwin-x64.tar.gz 

I can put the above URL in a browser and it will download the tar.

I also have access problem even if I use 'sudo'

 gyp ERR! stack Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/grpc/build'

Trying to understand how to get past the errors to install firebase-tools, Also some suggestions say to install node via nvm. Found tutorial on nvm, anyone know what doing this install will to to projects I already have on my machine. e.g confusion finding correct node.js, or need to reinstall everything that I already installed using my current node install?

The full error messages are ...

  sudo npm install -g firebase-tools
  Password:
  npm WARN deprecated [email protected]: Use uuid module instead
  /usr/local/bin/firebase -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-     tools/bin/firebase

  > [email protected] install /usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-   tools/node_modules/grpc
  > node-pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build --library=static_library

  node-pre-gyp ERR! Tried to download(undefined):    https://storage.googleapis.com/grpc-precompiled-binaries/node/grpc/v1.4.1/node-    v57-darwin-x64.tar.gz 
 node-pre-gyp ERR! Pre-built binaries not found for [email protected] and      [email protected] (node-v57 ABI) (falling back to source compile with node-gyp) 
 gyp ERR! configure error 
 gyp ERR! stack Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/grpc/build'
 gyp ERR! System Darwin 17.3.0
 gyp ERR! command "/usr/local/bin/node"  "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js"  "configure" "--fallback-to-build" "--library=static_library" "-- module=/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase- tools/node_modules/grpc/src/node/extension_binary/grpc_node.node" "-- module_name=grpc_node" "--module_path=/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/grpc/src/node/extension_binary"
 gyp ERR! cwd /usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/grpc
 gyp ERR! node -v v8.9.4
 gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.6.2
 gyp ERR! not ok 
 node-pre-gyp ERR! build error 
 node-pre-gyp ERR! stack Error: Failed to execute '/usr/local/bin/node    /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js configure   --fallback-to-build --library=static_library --   module=/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase- tools/node_modules/grpc/src/node/extension_binary/grpc_node.node -- module_name=grpc_node --module_path=/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase- tools/node_modules/grpc/src/node/extension_binary' (1)
 node-pre-gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.<anonymous>   (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/grpc/node_modules/node-  pre-gyp/lib/util/compile.js:83:29)
 node-pre-gyp ERR! stack     at emitTwo (events.js:126:13)
 node-pre-gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:214:7)
 node-pre-gyp ERR! stack     at maybeClose   (internal/child_process.js:925:16)
 node-pre-gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:209:5)
 node-pre-gyp ERR! System Darwin 17.3.0
 node-pre-gyp ERR! command "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-   tools/node_modules/grpc/node_modules/.bin/node-pre-gyp" "install" "--fallback-  to-build" "--library=static_library"
 node-pre-gyp ERR! cwd /usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-    tools/node_modules/grpc
 node-pre-gyp ERR! node -v v8.9.4
 node-pre-gyp ERR! node-pre-gyp -v v0.6.36
 node-pre-gyp ERR! not ok 
 Failed to execute '/usr/local/bin/node   /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js configure  --fallback-to-build --library=static_library -- module=/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-  tools/node_modules/grpc/src/node/extension_binary/grpc_node.node -- module_name=grpc_node --module_path=/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase- tools/node_modules/grpc/src/node/extension_binary' (1)
 npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: [email protected] (node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/grpc):
 npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: [email protected] install: `node-   pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build --library=static_library`
 npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Exit status 1

 + [email protected]
 added 8 packages and updated 1 package in 37.194s

I also tried to cd in to the node_modules directory and run the install from there as proposed in this post

firebase-tools cannot install, why?

The result is pages and pages of warning messages and finally an error

 npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/bin/firebase
 npm ERR! code ELOOP
 npm ERR! errno -62
 npm ERR! syscall chmod
 npm ERR! ELOOP: too many symbolic links encountered, chmod '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/bin/firebase'

Answer 1

I encountered the same problem what I did was made sure I was in root directory and the ran :

sudo npm i g firebase-tools

Or in Windows

npm i g firebase-tools

I was constantly doing it in my project folder and kept getting the same error.

Answer 2

npm install -g firebase-tools

works on windows without causing any error. but when it comes to Mac you need to start it with sudo. so the command will be:

sudo npm install -g firebase-tools

then check the version using firebase -V on terminal to make sure you've done correctly.

Answer 3

I had the same problem on macOS High Sierra. The only thing that worked for me in the end was to uninstall node.js from Homebrew (brew uninstall node), then install node.js using the downloadable installer (https://nodejs.org/en/download/) then install the Firebase CLI using sudo: sudo npm install -g firebase-tools

After that, I still received the warnings, but could launch and configure Firebase. Not an ideal solution, but it is serving as a fix for me at the moment.