npm install no longer possible after deleting module directory

Question

So I wanted to help out, and forked a Node-RED module to make some small contribution, but then got lost messing around with how to get Node-RED to run my fork (for testing) rather than the packaged version. Then I learned about npm's ability to install from a Github URL, which is nice, but it wouldn't work because I had already installed the module. Then I found I couldn't uninstall it either

npm uninstall original-module
npm ERR! path /home/nodered/.node-red/node_modules/original-module/package.json
npm ERR! code ELOOP
npm ERR! errno -40
npm ERR! syscall open
npm ERR! ELOOP: too many symbolic links encountered, open '/home/nodered/.node-red/node_modules/original-module/package.json'

so in frustration I deleted the module's directory, only to find myself unable to move forwards, or backwards. npm install https://github.com/me/forkedmodule fails with

npm ERR! code 128
npm ERR! Command failed: /usr/bin/git clone --depth=1 -q -b master https://github.com/me/forkedmodule.git /root/.npm/_cacache/tmp/git-clone-d31dc53b
npm ERR! fatal: could not create leading directories of '/root/.npm/_cacache/tmp/git-clone-d31dc53b': Permission denied
npm ERR! 

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2017-08-22T01_07_18_257Z-debug.log

and trying to install the original with npm install original-module fails with

npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL
npm ERR! Could not install from "node_modules/original-module" as it does not contain a package.json file.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2017-08-22T01_09_56_127Z-debug.log

As you've probably guessed, I'm pretty new to Node.js, Node-RED and npm, but I haven't been able to help myself, so have to ask for help! It seems nonsensical to me that npm appears to be looking for a local copy of the package.json file belonging to the package I'm trying to install?

Edit: I should add that the above commands were all run as root.

Answer 1

Ok, found a solution, not sure if it's the best one though!

In the "project" directory (/home/nodered/.nodered in my case) there's a package-lock.json file which lists the packages used by the project. In there I found an entry for the original-module which I removed, after which I was able to install the package "normally" with npm install original-module.

Then to solve the permission issue when installing from a GitHub URL, I found I needed to impersonate the "nodered" user with su - nodered (it's a password-less user in my case). As "nodered" npm install https://github.com/me/forkedmodule succeeded without any error. A little curious since I was trying to do this as root before, and got a permission error, but there you go. I also took the opportunity to chown -R the project's node_modules directory to nodered:nodered as I could see that was a bit of mess.

In future, I will try to remember to su - to my nodered user first, and navigating to the project root (again, /home/nodered/.node-red in my case) before running npm install anything. Hopefully that will avoid any further issues. Oh and a note to anyone else who just wants to contrib some quick changes to a module hosted on GitHub: to "pull" in changes you simply run npm install https://github.com/me/forkedmodule again - npm doesn't appear to provide any dedicated "update" method.