My computer keeps forgetting that I have node installed despite the fact that all of the files are still there. So far, I have tried installing through the node installer on the nodejs website, using brew, using nvm, and also several of the suggestions in this gist. No matter what I try, within a couple of hours or a couple of days, I am working away and then I am suddenly throwing node errors, and when I check node -v or npm -v, I get the error command not found: node or command not found: npm. The only thing that I can figure out to get node working again is to uninstall whatever I most recently tried and then to reinstall.
It seems like I might be having some sort of env or path issue, but I don't know where to begin to start troubleshooting anything like that.
EDIT
Based on the suggestion below, I added these to my .bash_profile and it seems to have fixed my issue. Not sure why the install wasn't adding them here or in .bashrc, but adding it manually fixed the issue:
export PATH="$HOME/.npm-packages/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="$HOME/.node_modules/bin:$PATH"
maybe you forgot to add node & npm binaries to your path that's why when you open a new instance of your terminal it says that it doesn't know node and npm
Simply add the line that register the binaries into your path within your .profile file that might be located in your home directory
I was trying to change my npm and npm-cache folders to d:\\npm-global and d:\\npm-cache
I managed to do a npm config set cache d:\npm-cache
When I tried to do a npm config set prefix d:\npm-global I accidentally put a ' in the folder string as I was hitting enter. I deleted the errant folder after trying a npm i -g gulp and to my horror, npm stopped working altogether, it just sits there with my command prompt rocking up to 50% CPU usage.
Help please! I've tried searching the registry and other places, even uninstalled and re-installed the nodejs msi package on Windows. This reset the D:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\npmrc file.
Still no luck. I can't get npm to work again. :(
edit A little digging in and I realized there is a second node server running via Adobe Creative Cloud. I doubt this is the problem though as when I run npm from the cmd.exe prompt, the correct (d:\program files\nodejs) version of the npm server is executed for that process.
edit so only sometimes when I hit Control-C, I'll get this error:
seems like it's trying to find a file that doesn't exist. However, I cleared out the AppData\Roaming\npm folder and the reinstalls reset the default d:\program files\nodejs\....npm\npmrc file. I also made sure that the environment variable NODE_PATH is not set. It wasn't set when it was working. I set it when I was trying to make my changes.
You should be able to modify your config settings manually by modifying ~/.npmrc
#jakemingolla was right so I marked that answer as accepted (thanks Jake), but I also asked this in the NPM forum and did a little test after I got it working. I thought this might help someone: https://npm.community/t/i-killed-my-npm-on-windows-trying-to-move-some-folders-reinstalling-nodejs-isnt-resetting-the-problem/5743/8?u=chi11ax
I've looked through the different articles here, but I'm not finding out the answer I need, or don't understand necessarily what has been explained in other posts.
I downloaded node.js got my github up and have cloned the phonecat site, that part works fine. I can even check npm/node versions through cmd, but whenever I install using either "npm install" or "npm install -g" "Couldn't read depndencies" couldn't find package.json" has a long list of errors:
http://tinypic.com/1r54rjf4
I have tried caching, updating, restarting, uninstalling, reinstalling, giving permissions to fully allow windows system32 for commands. I have been reading for a few hours, and I am just at a complete loss here. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
When you don't specify a module to download, npm will look for a package.json. It's not finding one, which is why you're seeing all kinds of errors.
Is there a project you're working on? If you want to start a new one you can run npm init. If there's an existing one that has a package.json, you can navigate to that directory in your terminal and then npm install should work.
I didn't. I'm still wrestling with it. I'm not sure what to do about it either. I had one of my friends come over that's familiar with node and he couldn't figure it out. It must be a permissions issue somewhere on the computer. I can't figure out what else it could be.
I have the Error: Cannot find module xyz/abcd error.
YES, the required module is installed.
According to the pseudo-code of module.require here, it should work.
I tried to dive inside require() to understand why it can't find my file. My node debugger won't step into require(). I've tried the strace / grep NOENT technique whithout success either.
Any idea how to troubleshoot a nasty require() failure ?
Note : just in case : the error comes from a file node_modules/xyz/a requiring xyz/b. It should work according to the doc.
By investigating more, I think I found a good technique :
export NODE_DEBUG=module
node my_script.js
gives such interesting traces :
looking for "/(...)/tests_init.js" in ["/home/(me)/.nave/installed/0.10.24/lib/node","/home/(me)/.node_modules","/home/(me)/.node_libraries","/home/(me)/.nave/installed/0.10.24/lib/node"]
And BTW, it shows that node is not searching at all where I thought it was. Time to investigate...
[edit] end of the story :
1) it appears that node is not treating well modules installed with npm link. require(...) sometimes fails to select files from inside a npm-linked module. I have no desire to investigate further the exact error conditions, I'll just conclude that npm link is very brittle.
2) beware of node looking for node_modules all the way into the parent dirs of current working directory ! I found that modules from parent folders of my app where sometime selected !
I installed nodejs in C:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs
then I created a .js file and saved it in my desktop just to output 'hello world' in the console:
console.log('hello world');
When I tried to run the file from the command prompt:
C:\Users\Laura>cd desktop
C:\Users\Laura\Desktop>node nodeTest.js
I get:
module.js:340
throw err;
^
Error: Cannot find module 'C:\Users\Laura\Desktop\testNode.js'
at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
at startup (node.js:119:16)
at node.js:901:3
I read many other related questions, and some of them recommend to run the install, and so I did.
C:\Users\Laura>npm install -g express
But no luck, still getting the same error message.
EDIT: This answer is outdated. With things like Yarn and NPM 5's lockfiles it is now easier to ensure you're dependencies are correct on platforms like Heroku
I had a similar issue related to node_modules being modified somehow locally but the change was not reflect on Heroku, causing my app to crash. It's relatively easy fix if this is your issue:
# Remove node_modules
rm -fr node_modules
# Reinstall packages
npm i
# Commit changes
git add node_modules
git commit -m 'Fix node_modules dependencies.'
git push heroku master
Hope that helps for others with a similar issue.
I was having the same problem with a server someone had written a while back. It turns out I didn't have a few things installed that the script required.
This question was helpful to me.
I ended up being able to use:
npm install yourMissingDependency
Although in your instance it may just be a file that it doesn't have a path to.
You could try putting that file in the same folder you are running the node script from.
I think the issue is the NODE_PATH environment variable. I had the same problem but once I issued (on Windows)
set NODE_PATH=C:\Users\MyUser\node_modules
then all worked ok.
Cheers,
Restart your command prompt and check your path variable (type: path).
If you can't find find nodejs installation dir from output add it to the path variable and remember to restart cdm again...
I had a nearly identical issue, turned out my JS file wasn't actually in the folder I was calling it from, and I had gone one folder too deep.
I went up one directory, ran the file, it recognized it, happily ever after.
Alternatively, if you go one folder up, and it gives you the same error, but about a different module, take that same file in your parent folder and move it into the subfolder you were previously trying to run things from.
TL;DR- your file or its module(s) is not in the folder you think it is. Go up one level
Try typing this into the Node command-line environment:
.load c:/users/laura/desktop/nodeTest.js.
It should work for what you're trying to do.
If you want to call the file directly, you'd have to have it in the root directory where your Node installation resides.
Hi fellow Phonegap/Cordova/Ionic developers,
I solved this issue by doing the following
1. C: drive -> Users -> "username" eg. john -> AppData -> Roaming
2. Inside the "Roaming" folder you need to delete both "npm" and "npm-cache"
folder.
3. Now build your project, and it should work
Happy coding!!!
I faced the same problem. I just copied the testNode.js file(that contain the test code) and pasted into the root of nodejs directory manually. I tried this command C:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs>node testnode.js
Bingo! I received this message.
Then I typed this url in a browser and received the message "Hello World".
Hope this help somebody.
You need to:
Remove the tick of Hide extensions for known file types from Windows Explorer folders option
Your file will appear as testNode.js.txt
Remove the trailing .txt so as the file to be resolved as JS file
That's it, now it works!
I had the same problem then I found that I wasn´t hitting the node server command in the proper directory where the server.js is located.
Hope this helps.
Try npm install --production and then npm start.
Easy way for this problem
npm link e
I also got this issue and this was due to wrong path that we mention while running. Check your file path and also make sure that there is no space between the name of your directory name.
Try npm start in Node.js Command Prompt.
Look at the end of the messages - it gives you the path of log file in "Additional Logging Details ..." something like c:\users\MyUser\npm-debug.log
Open this file in Notepad and find the real address of Node.exe :
something like C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\\\node.exe
Try cd to this path
Call node.exe + <full path to your server file.js>
Server is listening on port 1337 !
I had the same problem, but finally I tried copying the Node_modules folder in the same project folder, and it worked.
I executed following command and it works for me.
PM> npm install ee-first ee-first#1.1.0 node_modules\ee-first
While i tried to run my first node application i had encountered the same issue but when i tried to see what the issue might be it was the path of the file. I was running the node .js from different location and hence encountered the issue. When i fixed the path this worked fine.
In my case, i got this error because i was just in the wrong directory. So node couldnt find the module that i wanted to run. Just be sure your node file is in your Desktop directory.
If you are using a framework like express, you need to put the package.json file into the folder you are using and don't forget change main name.
Remove the fs extra from the path -
path: 'D:\\FrontEnd Dev\\Git projects\\Appname-master\\node_modules\\webpack-manifest-plugin\\node_modules\\fs-extra\\package.json',
requestPath: 'fs-extra'
And run the command npm i
Make sure you saved the file as JavaScript. Un check 'Hide extensions for all known type' check box in Folder Options window will show you the correct file extension(Folder>>view>>Option).
Faced the same problem while trying to run node-red.
node <directory structure where js is located>/red. js
In my case it was :
node AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/node-red/red.js