"npm install" fails when there is a git package dependancy on macOS Catalina

Question

When running “npm install” on a Node.js project which has a Git dependency, it fails on macOS Catalina.

npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! errno EPERM
npm ERR! Error: spawn EPERM
npm ERR!     at ChildProcess.spawn (internal/child_process.js:394:11)
npm ERR!     at Object.spawn (child_process.js:540:9)
npm ERR!     at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/util/git.js:216:24
npm ERR!     at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/promise-retry/index.js:29:24
npm ERR!  OperationalError: spawn EPERM
npm ERR!     at ChildProcess.spawn (internal/child_process.js:394:11)
npm ERR!     at Object.spawn (child_process.js:540:9)
npm ERR!     at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/util/git.js:216:24
npm ERR!     at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/promise-retry/index.js:29:24 {
npm ERR!   cause: Error: spawn EPERM
npm ERR!       at ChildProcess.spawn (internal/child_process.js:394:11)
npm ERR!       at Object.spawn (child_process.js:540:9)
npm ERR!       at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/util/git.js:216:24
npm ERR!       at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/promise-retry/index.js:29:24 {
npm ERR!     errno: 'EPERM',
npm ERR!     code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR!     syscall: 'spawn'
npm ERR!   },
npm ERR!   isOperational: true,
npm ERR!   stack: 'Error: spawn EPERM\n' +
npm ERR!     '    at ChildProcess.spawn (internal/child_process.js:394:11)\n' +
npm ERR!     '    at Object.spawn (child_process.js:540:9)\n' +
npm ERR!     '    at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/util/git.js:216:24\n' +
npm ERR!     '    at /Users/user/.node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/promise-retry/index.js:29:24',
npm ERR!   errno: 'EPERM',
npm ERR!   code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR!   syscall: 'spawn'
npm ERR! }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! The operation was rejected by your operating system.
npm ERR! It is likely you do not have the permissions to access this file as the current user
npm ERR!
npm ERR! If you believe this might be a permissions issue, please double-check the
npm ERR! permissions of the file and its containing directories, or try running
npm ERR! the command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/user/.npm/_logs/2019-10-30T08_40_20_156Z-debug.log

It seems executing Git by the npm script is blocked by the OS. It works on previous macOS versions. It also works on macOS Catalina if I run “sudo npm install”.

Answer 1

This is happening because current user's default group is different than the source directory's group(even though user has access permission to source directory). My default group is staff but the directory's group is admin, when I change the directory's group as staff "npm ci/install" works fine. Found the solution form here.