The package.json files are corrupted after a while

Question

I use a corporate computer with Windows 10. I have nodejs v6.10.0 and npm v3.10.10. It's the first time that I install nodejs/npm on this computer.

When I install a module (any kind of modules, for example npm install jsdoc) then everything works fine. I can call my example.js several times, and all is OK.

But after a while (random period) I cannot run my program anymore because I get the below error:

>node example.js
module.js:96
    throw e;
    ^

SyntaxError: Error parsing C:\my_path\node_modules\some_module\package.json: Unexpected token x in JSON at position 0

If I check the content of the package.json with SublimeText I got:

78c0 b658 72a3 e0f5 7832 e7d4 b5ee dcc8
8f00 9951 3b8a cbd5 db7f 4556 5e8b e88d
087d 9bb8 ff15 9acb 0a09 7aaf afd3 ced2
3aa9 e2c5 7e7b c4a1 7b82 a332 2848 83ed
adca d7e8 3228 5537 64eb 3105 2338 6ae2
[...]

And actually it's all the package.json files under node_modules for this project that have been corrupted.... For all modules!

However, if I have a package.json in my project folder, it won't be impacted, only the ones under node_modules folder will be....

To fix the issue I have to delete node_modules and reinstall my modules with npm install. Not really handy. After doing it, my package.json files are all correct again with the expected content.

I thought it could be related to our McAfee anti-virus, but why it will only impact the package.json files under node_modules, and not the ones that are in other folders?

I read somewhere that a corporate proxy could download a package.json with the wrong encoding, but when I install my modules, the package.json are totally normal.

So if anyone has any idea/lead, I'll appreciate!

EDIT: The corruption stopped to happen since the last release of npm (5.x) ... I don't know if it's related to it, or maybe a Windows update installed, or my I/T dept pushed a software update...

Answer 1

At this stage, if it was me, I'd be using the SysInternals Process Monitor: Don't assume anything specifically, and just monitor and log all I/O on your system until the files in question start changing. You can set Process Monitor up to record disk actions, and then filter the logs until you see which process is actually changing anything with .json in the name. There will likely be a lot of logs, and you might have to spend a while sifting through them, but it should at least give you something to look at to at least answer the question "What program is changing these files?" instead of having to guess.

One other thought: If the files are changing and Process Monitor doesn't show anything at all, you may have a disk that is going bad. Consider doing all your work on a USB drive for a little while and see if the same results happen; if the files are getting corrupted on drive C: but not on drive F: (or whatever), that may suggest your disk is starting to fail. Particularly with SSDs, disks can do some weird things when they start to die.

Tracking these kinds of random file changes can be hard, but there are ways that you can identify the cause; don't give up hope, and you'll find it. Good luck!