npm ERR! Error: EPERM, chmod

Question

If have some problems using npm on my raspberry pi when trying to build a node.js application on an usb device.

package.json looks like this:

{
  "name" : "node-todo",
  "version" : "1.0.0",
  "description" : "TodoApp",
  "main" : "server.js",
  "autho" : "Stephan",
  "dependencies" : {
     "express" : "*"
  }
}

Using npm install results in:

npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No README data
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm ERR! Error: EPERM, chmod '/media/ServerHD/testraum/test/node_modules/express/package.json'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EPERM, chmod '/media/ServerHD/testraum/test/node_modules/express/package.json']
npm ERR!   errno: 50,
npm ERR!   code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR!   path: '/media/ServerHD/testraum/test/node_modules/express/package.json',
npm ERR!   fstream_finish_call: 'chmod',
npm ERR!   fstream_type: 'File',
npm ERR!   fstream_path: '/media/ServerHD/testraum/test/node_modules/express/package.json',
npm ERR!   fstream_class: 'FileWriter',
npm ERR!   fstream_stack:
npm ERR!    [ '/opt/node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/writer.js:305:19',
npm ERR!      'Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)' ] }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! System Linux 3.12.28+
npm ERR! command "/opt/node/bin/node" "/opt/node/bin/npm" "install" "-no-bin-links"
npm ERR! cwd /media/ServerHD/testraum/test
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.28
npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.9
npm ERR! path /media/ServerHD/testraum/test/node_modules/express/package.json
npm ERR! fstream_path /media/ServerHD/testraum/test/node_modules/express/package.json
npm ERR! fstream_type File
npm ERR! fstream_class FileWriter
npm ERR! fstream_finish_call chmod
npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! errno 50
npm ERR! stack Error: EPERM, chmod '/media/ServerHD/testraum/test/node_modules/express/package.json'
npm ERR! fstream_stack /opt/node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/writer.js:305:19
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /media/ServerHD/testraum/test/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

If i try to run npm install in /home/myUser/Appfolder everything works fine. All files on the ServerHD are created by the same user the homefolder belongs to. I tried using:

1. npm install -no-bin-links which results in the same problems
2. trying to change the folder on ServerHD to 777 has no effects for npm
3. trying to run npm install with sudo

Using express-generator causes simular problems.

Hope someone can help. Thanks so far.

Answer 1

I had similar error and calling:

npm cache clean

Helped me solve it.

Answer 2

npm is telling you that you lack the permissions to modify permissions on the affected file. This is probably a race condition, several of which were fixed in the [email protected] codebase. I will guess that the reason you see it on one disk and not the other is that the disks have different latency and read access times, causing non-reproducible behavior.

You should upgrade to the current version of npm (and node, for that matter). If you are using a Debian-based distribution, you can follow the instructions here < https://github.com/nodesource/distributions#usage-instructions >

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup | sudo bash - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs nodejs-legacy sudo npm -g install npm@latest

If that doesn't fix your problem, please let me know; for a quicker response, create an issue on the npm tracker https://github.com/npm/npm/issues and tag me ( @smikes ) in the issue.