nvm: npm does not list globally installed modules

Hi,

npm list -g is not showing globally installed modules:

# adam.moss@scarecrow:~ $ npm list -g
/Users/adam.moss/.nvm/versions/node/v7.2.1/lib
└── (empty)

However there are modules installed (inc. npm itself, obviously 😃)

# adam.moss@scarecrow:~ $ ls .nvm/versions/node/v7.2.1/lib/node_modules/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  10 adam.moss  staff   340B  7 Dec 14:07 .
drwxr-xr-x   4 adam.moss  staff   136B  6 Dec 21:48 ..
drwxr-xr-x  12 adam.moss  staff   408B  7 Dec 14:07 gulp-cli
drwxr-xr-x   9 adam.moss  staff   306B  7 Dec 14:07 istanbul
drwxr-xr-x  10 adam.moss  staff   340B  7 Dec 14:07 jasmine
drwxr-xr-x  15 adam.moss  staff   510B  7 Dec 14:07 mocha
drwxr-xr-x  27 adam.moss  staff   918B  7 Dec 14:07 npm
drwxr-xr-x  21 adam.moss  staff   714B  7 Dec 14:07 pm2
drwxr-xr-x   6 adam.moss  staff   204B  7 Dec 14:07 react-native-cli
drwxr-xr-x  21 adam.moss  staff   714B  7 Dec 14:07 snyk

Debug output

# adam.moss@scarecrow:~ $ nvm debug
nvm --version: v0.32.1
$SHELL: /usr/local/bin/bash
$HOME: /Users/adam.moss
$NVM_DIR: '$HOME/.nvm'
$PREFIX: ''
$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX: ''
nvm current: v7.2.1
which node: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v7.2.1/bin/node
which iojs: 
which npm: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v7.2.1/bin/npm
npm config get prefix: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v7.2.1
npm root -g: $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v7.2.1/lib/node_modules

And npm outdated -g does actually work

# adam.moss@scarecrow:~ $ npm outdated -g
Package  Current   Wanted  Latest  Location
npm      3.10.10  3.10.10   4.0.3

Contents of my .npmrc

save-exact=true

This is on macOS Sierra (v10.12.1)

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 8 years ago
Comments: 20 (9 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

@vitaly-t the command is npm list -g --depth=0 - note the double dashes.

ljharb on Jan 14, 2017

See https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_loading_from_the_global_folders .

For me, this solved it:

ln -s ~/.nvm/versions/node/v6.9.2/lib/node_modules ~/.node_modules

However, I think this should be solved within NVM properly.

geekdenz on Jan 6, 2017

Actually after some more digging I think this is a npm bug. I have NODE_ENV=production in my environment. If I remove that it works as expected. So digging through ls.js in npm itself it appears something is going wrong between lines 133 and 145.

adam-moss on Dec 7, 2016

@ljharb oh, stupid me,…thanks so much for pointing out at the obvious, I was being blind, it seems, it does indeed work that way.

vitaly-t on Jan 14, 2017

OK Thanks.

geekdenz on Jan 6, 2017