Run bower from root user, it's possible? How? - node.js

Question

I have a local development server where I test a lot of things, now I'm playing with bower to manage the libraries' dependencies in my Symfony2 project. After getting NodeJS (v0.10.31) installed and bower (1.3.9), I tried to run the command sp:bower:install which belongs to Symfony2 SpBowerBundle from console as root:
Symfony > sp:bower:install
Installing bower dependencies for "TemplateBundle" into "/var/www/html/tanane/src/Tanane/TemplateBundle/Resources/config/bower/../../public/components"
bower ESUDO Cannot be run with sudo
Additional error details:
Since bower is a user command, there is no need to execute it with superuser permissions.
If you're having permission errors when using bower without sudo, please spend a few minutes learning more about how your system should work and make any necessary repairs.
http://www.joyent.com/blog/installing-node-and-npm
https://gist.github.com/isaacs/579814
You can however run a command with sudo using --allow-root option
I know that adding --allow-root works since I tested directly from bash but it apparently isn't allowed from the bundle command line. Now, is the only way to run bower as root to add --allow-root or does it exist another way ?

Answer 1

below answer is for symfony framework's bundle,
but if you come here from google using phrase "bower root" you have two options to solve that:
add --allow-root to command
set global bower config that will allow
running bower as root
Option 1: you can run bower as root by typing:
bower install --allow-root
root is allowed by setting --allow-root command parameter
Option 2: is using global setting that allows root, by creating file:
/root/.bowerrc
which have inside following configuration:
{ "allow_root": true }
how to do this in SpBowerBundle symfony bundle:
probably you haven't set sp_bower.allow_root to true in SpBowerBundle config
in bundle config, by default you have set something like this:
allow_root: false # optional
but you should have:
allow_root: true
so in app/config/config.yml add this bundle config
sp_bower:
allow_root: false # optional
bundle config reference (all settings):
https://github.com/Spea/SpBowerBundle/blob/master/Resources/doc/configuration_reference.md

Answer 2

If you are encountering this issue on Docker containers just add this line in your Dockerfile:
RUN echo '{ "allow_root": true }' > /root/.bowerrc

Answer 3

I fixed a similar problem by changing the directory permissions:
sudo chown -R $USER:$GROUP ~/.npm
sudo chown -R $USER:$GROUP ~/.config

Answer 4

This might be stupid but for me bower install --allow-root did not work but bower --allow-root install did, using grunt-bower-install version 1.6.0
This was on a docker running with root user, perhaps will save someone some time :)

Answer 5

Faced similar issue when installing swagger-editor.
Changed the following line in package.json from
"bower-install": "bower install"
to
"bower-install": "bower install --allow-root"

Answer 6

This works for me (add -u parameter on docker run)
bash
docker run -it -v ${PWD}:/www -w /www -u node node ./node_modules/bower/bin/bower install

Answer 7

For My case it is in Pom.xml where i have added as an argument as below:
<executable>bower</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>install</argument>
<argument>--allow-root</argument>
</arguments>
If need to avoid this --allow--root parameter we can do a compile out of root user

Answer 8

remover / delete bower_components
and reinstall bower
bower install