npm commands not working on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows (WSL) - node.js

Question

I am running latest stable windows with bash on Ubuntu running through cmder wslbridge (i tried running directly through bash but same errors). Moving to my windows based react-native folder and trying to run some cli like npm run android , react-native run-android , gradlew clean is always producing errors;
while surprisingly some other commands like npm start work properly...
which npm print out; /usr/local/bin/npm
i have npm installed on windows and inisde Ubuntu and whereis npm produce this
I am really confused here; when running npm commands inside the bash onto windows folders which npm should be triggered? the windows or WSL one?!
I've tried a lot of suggested solution, but nothing seems to be working...

Answer 1

As you have said you are unsure what is actaully running when you run the commands. if you run the following commands it might make it clear as to what is actually running.
➜ ~ whereis npm
npm: /usr/local/bin/npm /home/damo/.nvm/versions/node/v8.11.1/bin/npm /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm.cmd
➜ ~ which npm
/home/damo/.nvm/versions/node/v8.11.1/bin/npm
➜ ~ npm --version
6.4.1
➜ ~ sudo find / -name npm
/home/damo/.npm/10.52.63.39_4783/npm
/home/damo/.npm/npm
/home/damo/.nvm/versions/node/v10.4.1/bin/npm
/home/damo/.nvm/versions/node/v8.11.1/bin/npm
/home/damo/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/npm
/mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/node_modules/npm
/mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/node_modules/npm/bin/npm
/mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm
/mnt/c/Users/stangerd/AppData/Roaming/npm
➜ ~ echo $PATH
/home/damo/.nvm/versions/node/v8.11.1/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/mnt/c/Program Files/cmder/vendor/conemu-maximus5/ConEmu/Scripts:/mnt/c/Program Files/cmder/vendor/conemu-maximus5:/mnt/c/Program Files/cmder/vendor/conemu-maximus5/ConEmu:/mnt/c/Program Files/Docker/Docker/resources/bin:/mnt/c/Windows/System32:/mnt/c/Windows:/mnt/c/Windows/System32/wbem:/mnt/c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0:/mnt/c/HashiCorp/Vagrant/bin:/mnt/c/Program Files/Git/cmd:/mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs:/mnt/c/Program Files/Beyond Compare 4:/mnt/c/ProgramData/chocolatey/bin:/mnt/c/Program Files/Microsoft VS Code/bin:/mnt/c/Program Files/Docker/Docker/resources/bin:/mnt/c/Users/ stangerd/AppData/Roaming/npm
➜ ~ nvm use 10
Now using node v10.4.1 (npm v6.1.0)
➜ ~ echo $PATH
/home/damo/.nvm/versions/node/v10.4.1/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:........
You can see that for me i also have many versions of npm, but that its my WSLs current nvm version that is being used (shown by running which npm). This is because when the path is searched the first one found will be used. the first instance of npm in all the folders in my path is in /home/damo/.nvm/versions/node/v8.11.1/bin. Notice that when using nvm the path will be changed when switching node versions and that conveniently it puts this new path on the front of all the existing path folders.
Its also worth checking the alias set as this gets evaluated before the path is even queried. Just run alias to get a list.
Hope that this helps to find what is actually running. I'm interested to hear how you get on.