node-gyp: User "undefined"/"nobody" does not have permission to access the dir

I’m not sure if this is a problem with a newer version of Node or this package.

This is using Docker, with image FROM node:8.1

I’m trying to globally install the spectacle-docs package npm install -g spectacle-docs. It attempts to use node-gyp at one point and cannot create a directory with user “undefined”, so it tries to use a local temp directory and then has an error about user “nobody”, and ends up going into an infinite loop trying to rebuild.

I’ve tried deleting the directory and re-doing install numerous times, no luck.

Output:

> node-sass@4.5.3 postinstall /usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-sass
> node scripts/build.js

Building: /usr/local/bin/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js rebuild --verbose --libsass_ext= --libsass_cflags= --libsass_ldflags= --libsass_library=
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp verb cli [ '/usr/local/bin/node',
gyp verb cli   '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js',
gyp verb cli   'rebuild',
gyp verb cli   '--verbose',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_ext=',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_cflags=',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_ldflags=',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_library=' ]
gyp info using node-gyp@3.6.2
gyp info using node@8.1.2 | linux | x64
gyp verb command rebuild []
gyp verb command clean []
gyp verb clean removing "build" directory
gyp verb command configure []
gyp verb check python checking for Python executable "python2" in the PATH
gyp verb `which` succeeded python2 /usr/bin/python2
gyp verb check python version `/usr/bin/python2 -c "import platform; print(platform.python_version());"` returned: "2.7.9\n"
gyp verb get node dir no --target version specified, falling back to host node version: 8.1.2
gyp verb command install [ '8.1.2' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.1.2"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.1.2
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp WARN EACCES user "undefined" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/root/.node-gyp/8.1.2"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.1.2' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.1.2"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.1.2
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.1.2
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.1.2
gyp WARN EACCES user "nobody" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.1.2"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.1.2' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.1.2"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.1.2
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.1.2
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /usr/local/lib/node_modules/spectacle-docs/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.1.2
(This will loop forever)

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 7 years ago
Reactions: 21
Comments: 20 (2 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

Set the config user to be root as per issue on node-gyp https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/issues/1236#issuecomment-429127977 — committed to ministryofjustice/docker-github-actions-runner by damacus 4 years ago

Most upvoted comments

You could add --unsafe to your npm install command. npm install -g your-package --unsafe

Found it via https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1259

+159

phani1kumar on Sep 7, 2017

npm_config_user=root npm install -g ...

works for me

+28

asottile on Oct 11, 2018

npm_config_user=root npm install -g ...

works for me

I added “npm config set user root” before npm install

+24

saaryab on Mar 19, 2019

@bnoordhuis Indeed, I understand now that it doesn’t seem to be a problem with node-gyp. But I already had set the USER to either node or root, and didn’t work.

However, I was able to get it working by changing the default npm-global directory.

@kingjerod maybe it will work for you as well:

USER node

RUN mkdir /home/node/.npm-global
ENV PATH=/home/node/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
ENV NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=/home/node/.npm-global

+20

gabrielaraujof on Jun 19, 2017

@phani1kumar add --unsafe solved the warning, thanks!

+17

flinhong on Sep 25, 2017

Installing Angular 4 CLI on macOS: for some reason root user can’t create hidden folders, folder names beginning with ‘.’. So cd to “/usr/local/lib/node_modules/@angular/cli/node_modules/node-sass/” in the command-line shell and do a “mkdir .node-gy.” Re-run “sudo npm install -g @angular/cli.” Install will finish.

BoiseBaked on Aug 4, 2017

As simple user try sudo npm install -g package instead of running it as root. It works for me.

lhoussin on Apr 7, 2021

@gabrielaraujof solution worked for me as well, it’s also an officially recommended way to solve permission errors. npm guide I haven’t seen any actual problems when sudo install, but they recommend not to, so, I guess this is the best possible solution.

Dockerfile I used

FROM node:9.6.1 as node-angular-cli

USER node
RUN mkdir /home/node/.npm-global
ENV PATH=/home/node/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
ENV NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=/home/node/.npm-global
RUN npm install -g @angular/cli

taewdy on Feb 26, 2018

@gibfahn actually I don’t remember, but what I’ve been using successfully so far is this:

FROM node:8.1.4

USER node

RUN mkdir /home/node/.npm-global ; \
    mkdir -p /home/node/app ; \
    chown -R node:node /home/node/app ; \
    chown -R node:node /home/node/.npm-global
ENV PATH=/home/node/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
ENV NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=/home/node/.npm-global

WORKDIR /home/node/app
RUN npm install

julianonunes on Sep 12, 2017

Both seem to be issues with node-sass’s post-install scripts + insufficient permissions. You could try npm install --unsafe-perms (read up on what it does) but either way, I don’t see anything that indicates a node-gyp bug.

The ‘user “undefined”’ warning is because the USER environment variable isn’t set.

bnoordhuis on Jun 19, 2017

Switched to yarn instead of NPM and it fixed my particular issue.

bduffany on Feb 20, 2021