Gradle "... occurred starting process 'command 'npm''" on Mac - node.js

Question

I have MacOS with IntelliJ Idea installed. I'm using Gradle (gradle-2.4) for building the project. I have NodeJS and NPM installed on the Mac and available from the shell.
MacBook:~ user$ node -v
v4.2.2
MacBook:~ user$ npm -v
2.14.7
When running Gradle task that uses NODE/NPM, it fails with the following error (in current example it is NPM).
* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':module:task'.
> A problem occurred starting process 'command 'npm''
The error stack trace from Gradle is the following.
Exception is:
org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':module:task'.
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:69)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:46)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.PostExecutionAnalysisTaskExecuter.execute(PostExecutionAnalysisTaskExecuter.java:35)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.execute(SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.java:64)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ValidatingTaskExecuter.execute(ValidatingTaskExecuter.java:58)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.execute(SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.java:42)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:52)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:53)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.java:43)
at org.gradle.api.internal.AbstractTask.executeWithoutThrowingTaskFailure(AbstractTask.java:305)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.executeTask(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:79)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.processTask(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:63)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.run(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:51)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.process(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:23)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.execute(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:88)
at org.gradle.execution.SelectedTaskExecutionAction.execute(SelectedTaskExecutionAction.java:29)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:62)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.access$200(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:23)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter$2.proceed(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:68)
at org.gradle.execution.DryRunBuildExecutionAction.execute(DryRunBuildExecutionAction.java:32)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:62)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:55)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuildStages(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:149)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuild(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:106)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.run(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:86)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter$DefaultBuildController.run(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:80)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.BuildModelAction.run(BuildModelAction.java:43)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.BuildModelAction.run(BuildModelAction.java:30)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ConfiguringBuildAction.run(ConfiguringBuildAction.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:36)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:26)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ExecuteBuild.doBuild(ExecuteBuild.java:47)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:34)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.WatchForDisconnection.execute(WatchForDisconnection.java:35)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ResetDeprecationLogger.execute(ResetDeprecationLogger.java:24)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.StartStopIfBuildAndStop.execute(StartStopIfBuildAndStop.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput$2.call(ForwardClientInput.java:71)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput$2.call(ForwardClientInput.java:69)
at org.gradle.util.Swapper.swap(Swapper.java:38)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput.execute(ForwardClientInput.java:69)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.LogToClient.doBuild(LogToClient.java:60)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:34)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.EstablishBuildEnvironment.doBuild(EstablishBuildEnvironment.java:70)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:34)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonHygieneAction.execute(DaemonHygieneAction.java:39)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:119)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.StartBuildOrRespondWithBusy$1.run(StartBuildOrRespondWithBusy.java:46)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.DaemonStateCoordinator$1.run(DaemonStateCoordinator.java:246)
at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.DefaultExecutorFactory$StoppableExecutorImpl$1.run(DefaultExecutorFactory.java:64)
Caused by: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: A problem occurred starting process 'command 'npm''
at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.setEndStateInfo(DefaultExecHandle.java:196)
at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.failed(DefaultExecHandle.java:325)
at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:83)
... 1 more
Caused by: net.rubygrapefruit.platform.NativeException: Could not start 'npm'
at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:27)
at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.WrapperProcessLauncher.start(WrapperProcessLauncher.java:36)
at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:65)
... 1 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "npm" (in directory "/<project path>"): error=2, No such file or directory
at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:25)
... 3 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
... 4 more
So it looks like Gradle is trying to find NPM in the project absolute directory and doesn't use Mac PATH environment variable. Anyone knows how to avoid/workaround this? I cannot use absolute path for NODE/NPM as the team is shared and using different OSes (Linux, MacOS). Any ideas? :)

Answer 1

I stop the gradle daemon by running
$ ./gradlew --stop
rerun the gradle command and fix it.

Answer 2

I had a similar issue and in my case, problem was that when I ran it from IntelliJ, Gradle was unable to access path to find out where node / npm is. I was using the gradle-gulp-plugin and enabling automatic download of node resolved the problem.
buildscript {
repositories {
mavenCentral()
jcenter()
}
dependencies {
classpath('be.filipblondeel.gradle:gradle-gulp-plugin:0.1')
}
}
node {
// Version of node to use.
version = '0.12.0'
// Enabled the automatic download.
download = true
}

Answer 3

I had the same problem and got it resolved by running the command:
gradle --stop

Answer 4

Might be usefull for someone:
In my case the problem was, that I had Android Studio running.
Had to quit it first, then everything worked fine again.

Answer 5

I ran into this same issue attempting to run Gradle tasks that executed commands such as node and npm from the Gradle plugin in Intellij. You can see from the stack trace that the Gradle plugin is attempting to execute external system commands and it is getting errors such as this:
WARN - nal.AbstractExternalSystemTask - error=2, No such file or directory
com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.model.ExternalSystemException: error=2, No such file or directory
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleExecutionHelper.execute(GradleExecutionHelper.java:228)
You can reproduce this error from the command line if you remove the executables (ie node, npm) from the path, which tells me that something about the plugin is not honoring the environment path.
My Gradle plugin is using the projects gradlew (gradle wrapper version 2.3), so I attempted to point the plugin at a more recent Gradle installation on my system (version 2.10) and it worked.
I then resolved my issue by regenerating the gradle wrapper for my project and then setting the IntelliJ Gradle plugin to point back to my wrapper.
I have no idea what the original problem was.

Answer 6

Might be helpfull:
sudo launchctl config user path $PATH
"To take effect might have to restart your machine"

Answer 7

The answer is this is trivial it turns out. Solution is applicable to ANY application.
The reason for the error is that none of the visual apps on Mac OS X use a user shell so whatever you have in your local profile settings such as ~/.bash_profile simply does not take when Studio is launched. There is a good workaround:
from terminal, go to this directory or where ever your Studio app (or any other app) is installed:
cd /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/MacOS
Move the studio executable to studio_app (or whatever is your executable name)
mv $executable$ $executable$_app
Create a new text file, call it $executable$, and populate it like this. Here I am using my bash_profile.
#!/bin/sh
. ~/.bash_profile
logger "`dirname \"$0\"`/$executable$_app"
exec "`dirname \"$0\"`/$executable$_app" $#
Close the studio file. From shell change permissions:
chmod +x $executable$
And that is it. Relaunch Studio app normally and now it has inherited all your settings from bash_profile, including path to node etc.
Substitute $executable$ with the name of your exe file. For Android Studio it would be just studio. For IntelliJ it should be just intellij (double check).