Global installation of grunt.js fails

Question

I could install gruntjs locally using npm install grunt.

But when I'm trying to install it globally npm install grunt -g, i'm getting an error:

npm ERR! Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/grunt/bin/grunt'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! System Linux 2.6.18-92.el5xen
npm ERR! command "nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "grunt" "-g"
npm ERR! cwd /home/lj
npm ERR! node -v v0.6.18
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.19
npm ERR! path ../lib/node_modules/grunt/bin/grunt
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! message EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/grunt/bin/grunt'
npm ERR! errno {}

npm ERR! Error: EACCES, open 'npm-debug.log'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! System Linux 2.6.18-92.el5xen
npm ERR! command "nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "grunt" "-g"
npm ERR! cwd /home/lj
npm ERR! node -v v0.6.18
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.19
npm ERR! path npm-debug.log
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! message EACCES, open 'npm-debug.log'
npm ERR! errno {}
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/lj/npm-debug.log
npm not ok

With sudo I have error too:

npm ERR! Error: spawn ENOENT
npm ERR!     at errnoException (child_process.js:483:11)
npm ERR!     at ChildProcess.spawn (child_process.js:446:11)
npm ERR!     at child_process.js:342:9
npm ERR!     at Object.execFile (child_process.js:252:15)
npm ERR!     at uidNumber (/usr/lib/nodejs/uid-number/uid-number.js:33:17)
npm ERR!     at loadUid (/usr/lib/nodejs/npm/lib/npm.js:336:5)
npm ERR!     at Array.2 (/usr/lib/nodejs/bind-actor.js:15:8)
npm ERR!     at LOOP (/usr/lib/nodejs/chain.js:15:13)
npm ERR!     at /usr/lib/nodejs/chain.js:18:7
npm ERR!     at setUser (/usr/lib/nodejs/npm/lib/npm.js:346:32)
npm ERR! You may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <[email protected]>
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! System Linux 2.6.18-92.el5xen
npm ERR! command "nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "grunt" "-g"
npm ERR! cwd /home/lj
npm ERR! node -v v0.6.18
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.19
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! message spawn ENOENT
npm ERR! errno {}
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/lj/npm-debug.log
npm not ok

What could I do to install it?

P.S. It's possible that come rights for some folders is for root:root, not for my user. Cuz our admins installed VM that way...

Answer 1

I've had this problem too with grunt and bower

The solution I've found is in this article NPM config

In your .npmrc you need to set the prefix path

prefix = /usr/local

or you can do it from terminal like this:

npm config set prefix "/usr/local"

This way node will know where to install them:

In npm 1.0, there are two ways to install things:

globally —- This drops modules in {prefix}/lib/node_modules, and puts executable files in {prefix}/bin, where {prefix} is usually something like /usr/local. It also installs man pages in {prefix}/share/man, if they’re supplied.

locally —- This installs your package in the current working directory. Node modules go in ./node_modules, executables go in ./node_modules/.bin/, and man pages aren’t installed at all.

Answer 2

Try chowning the node_modules folder and then try to install again:

sudo chown -R $USER /path/to/node_modules/folder

Answer 3

Encountered same issue. The following works for me:

sudo npm install -g grunt-cli

Answer 4

try sudo npm install -g grunt ?

Answer 5

Adding the option --no-bin-links works good. I tried everything and only this solved my problem. I was installing the Yeoman on ubuntu 12.04 and it was always returning the error:

npm ERR! Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/yo/cli.js'

Then, I did:

npm install -g --no-bin-links yo

=D

For more details https://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues/2380