Why can't i npm install nodemon or supervisor on OSX 10.8.4?

Question

I'm just trying to install nodemon or supervisor using terminal, and I keep getting this error which I don't understand. I tried running as the administrator with sudo npm install supervisor -g which seemed to work, but than didn't when i deleted/added some js code. Any ideas?

Squirrels-MacBook-Air:lesson7_examples Squirrel$ npm install nodemon -g
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/nodemon
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/nodemon
npm ERR! Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon']
npm ERR!   errno: 3,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon',
npm ERR!   fstream_type: 'Directory',
npm ERR!   fstream_path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon',
npm ERR!   fstream_class: 'DirWriter',
npm ERR!   fstream_stack: 
npm ERR!    [ '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23',
npm ERR!      '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53',
npm ERR!      'Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)' ] }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! System Darwin 12.4.1
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "nodemon" "-g"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/Squirrel/Documents/Code/Memry/Memry_Mongoose
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.21
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.11
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon
npm ERR! fstream_path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon
npm ERR! fstream_type Directory
npm ERR! fstream_class DirWriter
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno 3
npm ERR! stack Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon'
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/Squirrel/Documents/Code/Memry/Memry_Mongoose/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0
Squirrels-MacBook-Air:lesson7_examples Squirrel$ 

P.S. I'm running this on a pre-existing template and my dependencies are

  "dependencies": {
    "mongoose": "~3.6.15",
    "express": "~3.3.4",
    "jade": "~0.34.1",
    "email-validator": "~0.1.2"
  }

When I tried sudo this is what happened:

sudo npm install supervisor -g --save 
Password:
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/supervisor
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/supervisor
/usr/local/bin/node-supervisor -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/supervisor/lib/cli-wrapper.js
/usr/local/bin/supervisor -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/supervisor/lib/cli-wrapper.js
[email protected] /usr/local/lib/node_modules/supervisor

Which seemed to work. But than in the application code I began to add and delete javascript and click save, yet the effects wouldn't take place unless I restarted the server within terminal.

Answer 1

Late to the party, but it is important to note that you should avoid using sudo when npm installing. It is a huge security risk to sudo npm install as you are giving arbitrary scripts root access to your machine.

Instead you should make yourself the owner of the directories in which the NPM

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local

and then

sudo chown -R $USER ~/.npm

Now you should be able to run the commands without sudo:

npm install supervisor -g --save

Answer 2

You're encountering an EACCES error, which means you don't have the rights to create a directory in /usr/local/lib/node_modules/nodemon as a standard user in Mac OS X.

There are two solutions:

• Run the same command as a superuser, using sudo. The package will be installed in /usr/local/lib/node_modules.
• Change npm's settings to install all of your global packages into one of your private folders, that your user has ownership of. See this relevant answer that explains step-by-step the process.

Answer 3

I know I'm late to the question, but you should check out nvm (node's answer to rbenv or virtualenv).

Install:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.25.4/install.sh | bash

Then add . ~/.nvm/nvm.sh to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.zshrc

Usage:

If you wanted to use version 0.10, run nvm install 0.12.7 (or nvm install stable), then nvm use 0.12.7.

Install your libs, EACCESS error-free, and go to town. npm install -g supervisor works just fine!

To load a specific version default in new tabs, use the command nvm alias default 0.12.7