Node JS - child_process spawn('npm install') in Grunt task results in ENOENT error

Question

I'm having some difficulty with a Grunt task I'm authoring. I'm trying to execute npm install, followed by bower install, followed by a grunt hub target (to trigger a build command for multiple sub-projects).

The problem I'm encountering lies with child_process. I get spawn ENOENT error if I run the following commands in my grunt task, with the npm install spawn command that's currently commented out:

    var path = require('path'),
        projectPath = path.resolve(process.cwd(), this.data.activity );

        grunt.log.debug('project path computed as: ', projectPath);
        process.chdir( projectPath );

        console.log('current dir is: ', process.cwd());
        console.log('EVN is: ', process.env);

        var spawnProcess = spawn('ls');
        // var spawnProcess = spawn('npm install');

        spawnProcess.stdout.on('data', function (data) {
            console.log('' + data);
        });

        spawnProcess.stderr.on('data', function(data) {

            console.log('something went wrong installing deps for ' + path + '.  Error: ', data);
        });

        spawnProcess.on('close', function (exitCode) {

            console.log( 'ls has finished with Exit Code: ' + exitCode);
        });

the current code (with ls instead of npm install) results in:

   running "install:projects" (install) task[D] Task source: /Users/zedd45/proj/Gruntfile.js
Verifying property install.projects exists in config...OK
File: [no files]
[D] project path computed as:  /Users/zedd45/proj/activity/web/client
current dir is:  /Users/zedd45/proj/activity/web/client
EVN (abbreviated) is:  { 
   TERM_PROGRAM: 'iTerm.app',
   SHELL: '/bin/bash',
   PWD: '/Users/zedd45/proj',
 ...
  OLDPWD: '/Users/zedd45/proj/activity/web/client',
  _: '/usr/local/bin/grunt' }

GruntFile.js
bower.json
package.json
this_is_the_directory_you_are_looking_for.txt
ls has finished with Exit Code: 0

but if I change 'ls' to 'npm install' I get instead ``Fatal error: spawn ENOENT

immediately following the ENV print.

I have tried chmod 777 for that directory, which doesn't seem to help.

I have also tried:

// var spawnProcess = spawn('npm install', {'cwd': projectPath});

and

// var spawnProcess = spawn('npm install', [], {'cwd': projectPath});

The former results in

Warning: Object # has no method 'slice' Use --force to continue.

the later still results in the ENOENT error.

Any help with exactly what this ENOENT error is would probably help a great deal; I haven't had much success with Googling it nor with the child process API docs

Answer 1

Double check the docs on child_process.spawn again. The first argument should be only the command to run and the second is the arguments:

var npm = spawn('npm', ['install'], { cwd: projectPath });