npm gives error when installing module not specified by me - node.js

Question

I am trying to install the modules needed by my application using
npm install
When I do this, I get the following error:
npm ERR! Error: No compatible version found: gulp-util#'^3.0.0'
npm ERR! Valid install targets:
npm ERR! ["0.0.1","1.0.0","1.1.0","1.1.1","1.2.0","1.3.0","2.0.0","2.1.1","2.1.2","2.1.3","2.1.4","2.2.0","2.2.1","2.2.2","2.2.3","2.2.5","2.2.6","2.2.7","2.2.8","2.2.9","2.
2.10","2.2.11","2.2.12","2.2.13","2.2.14","2.2.15","2.2.16","2.2.17","2.2.18","2.2.19","2.2.20","3.0.0","3.0.1","3.0.2","3.0.3","3.0.4","3.0.5","3.0.6"]
However, I never require this module into my project.
I'm assuming it's an issue internal of npm or node.
Furthermore, also strange is that when I run
npm list -g
I get the following output rather than seeing the versions of npm which are installed.
├── node#0.0.0
My package.json file is:
{
"name": "myProject",
"version": "0.0.1",
"dependencies": {},
"scripts": {
"test": "gulp test"
},
"devDependencies": {
"browserify": ">=9.0.7",
"gulp": ">=3.8.11",
"gulp-concat": ">=2.6.0",
"gulp-html-replace": ">=1.5.1",
"gulp-react": ">=3.0.1",
"gulp-streamify": ">=1.0.2",
"gulp-uglify": ">=1.2.0",
"gulp-util": ">=3.0.6",
"reactify": ">=1.1.1",
"vinyl-source-stream": ">=1.1.0"
},
"engines": {
"node": ">=0.10.0"
}
}

Answer 1

Your version of npm is so old that it doesn't support version ranges specified using ^. You are not using that syntax but it is quite likely one of the modules you are specifying is using that syntax for it's dependencies, and so when it tries to run npm install gulp-util#'^3.0.0' it throws that error.
If you update your npm either by updating node or by installing the latest npm with npm install -g npm then you should be able to proceed.