NPM, cannot find 'graceful-fs', no matter what I do

Question

This is what I get when I try to install express for node.js

npm install express

module.js:340
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module 'graceful-fs'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:362:17)
    at require (module.js:378:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/share/npm/lib/utils/ini.js:32:10)
    at Module._compile (module.js:449:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:467:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:362:17)

I even tried others and still got the same error. I did some digging and i did find 'gracefui-fs' on my server.

I am running ubuntu 12.04 LTS on an amazon ec2 server. Node installed with no errors, and npm still didn't work. I also un installed and re installed npm using

apt-get

as well as from source. During installation I received no errors either.

Answer 1

Had the same problem. Don't download npm from aptitude or apt-get.

Instead try:

git clone --depth=1 git://github.com/npm/cli.git
cd cli/scripts
chmod +x install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

saw it here: NPM can't install appjs. Error: Cannot find module 'graceful-fs'

Answer 2

I had the same problem.

sudo npm install 

solved it for me.

Answer 3

I was also using Ubuntu 12.04, and was having this same issue (though I don't think it's specifically Ubuntu's fault).

grimbo@grimbo-ubuntu-12:~/git/SyntaxHighlighter$ npm

module.js:340
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module 'graceful-fs'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:362:17)
    at require (module.js:378:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/share/npm/lib/utils/ini.js:32:10)
    at Module._compile (module.js:449:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:467:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:362:17)

So i tried to work out where npm was running from:

grimbo@grimbo-ubuntu-12:~/git/SyntaxHighlighter$ sudo find / -name npm
/etc/bash_completion.d/npm
/usr/bin/npm
/usr/local/bin/npm
/usr/local/n/versions/0.8.7/bin/npm
/usr/local/n/versions/0.8.7/lib/node_modules/npm
/usr/local/n/versions/0.8.7/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/npm
/usr/share/doc/npm
/usr/share/npm
/usr/share/doc-base/npm
/usr/lib/nodejs/npm
/var/lib/doc-base/documents/npm

For reference, these were a couple of the links:

/usr/bin/npm -> ../share/npm/bin/npm-cli.js*
/usr/local/n/versions/0.8.7/bin/npm -> ../lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js*

Confirmation that it was "/usr/bin/npm" that was being used:

grimbo@grimbo-ubuntu-12:~/git/SyntaxHighlighter$ which npm
/usr/bin/npm

So I tried to call the latest one specifically, which seemed to do the trick:

grimbo@grimbo-ubuntu-12:~/git/SyntaxHighlighter$ /usr/local/n/versions/0.8.7/bin/npm install
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No README.md file found!
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/uglify-js
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/less
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/jake
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/uglify-js
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/uglify-js/-/uglify-js-1.3.3.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/less
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/less/-/less-1.3.0.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch/-/minimatch-0.2.6.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/less/-/less-1.3.0.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/uglify-js/-/uglify-js-1.3.3.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch/-/minimatch-0.2.6.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/jake
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/jake/-/jake-0.3.14.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/jake/-/jake-0.3.14.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/utilities
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch/-/minimatch-0.0.5.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/utilities
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/utilities/-/utilities-0.0.11.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache/-/lru-cache-2.0.1.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/minimatch/-/minimatch-0.0.5.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/utilities/-/utilities-0.0.11.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache/-/lru-cache-2.0.1.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache/-/lru-cache-1.0.6.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/lru-cache/-/lru-cache-1.0.6.tgz
npm WARN prefer global [email protected] should be installed with -g
[email protected] node_modules/uglify-js

[email protected] node_modules/less

[email protected] node_modules/minimatch
+-- [email protected]

[email protected] node_modules/jake
+-- [email protected]
+-- [email protected] ([email protected])

Ultimately, it looks like maybe because I've had other versions of node and npm installed in the past, it just got confused.

Answer 4

So after installing node_js and npm, I was having the same problem

my-app# apt-get install mlocate || yum install mlocate
...
my-app$ locate graceful-fs
/usr/lib/nodejs/graceful-fs
... some other junk we don't care about ...
my-app$ export NODE_PATH=/usr/lib/nodejs
my-app$ npm update
... it works ...