How to read npm ENOENT errors - linux

Question

I've got 2 ENOENT errors. I know "ENOENT" means "Error NO ENTrance", but what exactly is missing in these two ENOENTs? What do these error messages mean? I would like to decipher them to be able to debug the problems.
npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, lstat '/home/ubuntu/.npm/iconv-lite/0.2.11/package/encodings/table/gbk.js'
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this *entire* log,
npm ERR! including the npm and node versions, at:
npm ERR! <http://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
npm ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-54-virtual
npm ERR! command "/home/ubuntu/local/bin/node" "/home/ubuntu/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! cwd /home/ubuntu/app_e
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.26
npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.3
npm ERR! path /home/ubuntu/.npm/iconv-lite/0.2.11/package/encodings/table/gbk.js
npm ERR! fstream_path /home/ubuntu/.npm/iconv-lite/0.2.11/package/encodings/table/gbk.js
npm ERR! fstream_type File
npm ERR! fstream_class FileWriter
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! errno 34
npm ERR! fstream_stack /home/ubuntu/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/writer.js:284:26
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
and
npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, chmod '/home/ubuntu/app_f/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/util.js'
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this *entire* log,
npm ERR! including the npm and node versions, at:
npm ERR! <http://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
npm ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-54-virtual
npm ERR! command "/home/ubuntu/local/bin/node" "/home/ubuntu/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! cwd /home/ubuntu/app_f
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.26
npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.3
npm ERR! path /home/ubuntu/app_f/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/util.js
npm ERR! fstream_path /home/ubuntu/app_f/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/util.js
npm ERR! fstream_type File
npm ERR! fstream_class FileWriter
npm ERR! fstream_finish_call chmod
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! errno 34
npm ERR! fstream_stack /home/ubuntu/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/writer.js:305:19
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/graceful-fs
One seems to have an "lstat" problem on gbk.js, the other an "chmod" problem on util.js, but what about the commands "node", "npm" and "install", "cwd", "fstream", and Object.oncomplete?
Here is writer.js:284.
Here is writer.js:305.

Answer 1

Reading the error line: Error: ENOENT, lstat '/home/ubuntu/.npm/iconv-lite/0.2.11/package/encodings/table/gbk.js'
It means that when doing something like fs.lstat('/home/ubuntu/.npm/iconv-lite/0.2.11/package/encodings/table/gbk.js', ...), npm received ENOENT error. Which means the file was missing, but npm expected it to be there.
And for the second one, npm was doing something like fs.chmod('/home/ubuntu/app_f/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/util.js', ...) and npm received ENOENT error.
The rest are debug information. These all are some variables/properties at the time error happened:
npm ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-54-virtual --> THis is the system type
npm ERR! command "/home/ubuntu/local/bin/node" "/home/ubuntu/local/bin/npm" "install" --> the command that was issued
npm ERR! cwd /home/ubuntu/app_f --> The current working directory
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.26 --> You should know this one!
npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.3 --> You should know this one!
npm ERR! path /home/ubuntu/app_f/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/util.js
These are about fstream module. It Indicates what was it doing exactly.
npm ERR! fstream_path /home/ubuntu/app_f/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt/util.js
npm ERR! fstream_type File
npm ERR! fstream_class FileWriter
npm ERR! fstream_finish_call chmod
This is the stacktrace(something like output of conosle.log(new Error().stack)) when the error happened:
npm ERR! fstream_stack /home/ubuntu/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/writer.js:305:19
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)

Answer 2

One quirk with reading NPM logs: gotta look at the very first error in the stream. An error upstream can cause files to go missing, resulting in many errors like the one you are reporting above.
Try going to the top of the log, then scrolling down until you find the initial, first error.