Global Node modules not installing correctly. Command not found

Question

I am having a problem installing global node modules and everything I find online says the solve is just adding -g. Which is not the problem. I believe it's a linking issue or wrong directory issue.

Here is what I do:

$ npm install -g express npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/express npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/express npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/range-parser/0.0.4 npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/mkdirp/0.3.3 ...downloads correctly  $ express myapp bash: express: command not found 

However when I run the direct link location to express it works:

   $ /usr/local/share/npm/bin/express myapp     create : myapp    create : myapp/package.json    create : myapp/app.js ... Builds app correctly 

Where the module is:

$ which node /usr/local/bin/node $ node -pe process.execPath /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.8.20/bin/node $ npm link express /Users/bentonrr/Development/Personal/node_modules/express -> /usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/express 

In my .bash_profile I have:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH export NODE_PATH=/usr/local/lib/node_modules:/usr/local/lib/node 

Do I need to change my Node environment to download to correct folder? Is something not linking correctly? I am lost..

Thanks!

Other Specs:

$ node --version v0.8.20 $ npm --version 1.2.11 $ brew --version 0.9.4 OSX Version 10.8.2 

Answer 1

This may mean your node install prefix isn't what you expect.

You can set it like so:

npm config set prefix /usr/local

then try running npm install -g again, and it should work out. Worked for me on a mac, and the solution comes from this site:

http://webbb.be/blog/command-not-found-node-npm/

EDIT: Note that I just came across this again on a new Mac I'm setting up, and had to do the process detailed here on stackoverflow as well.

Answer 2

Add $(npm get prefix)/bin to your PATH (e.g., in .bashrc), like so:

echo "export PATH=$PATH:$(npm get prefix)/bin" >> ~/.bashrc

For more info, see npm help npm:

global mode: npm installs packages into the install prefix at prefix/lib/node_modules and bins are installed in prefix/bin.

You can find the install prefix with npm get prefix or npm config list | grep prefix.