382

I'm trying to upgrade to the latest version of node. I'm following the instructions at http://davidwalsh.name/upgrade-nodejs

But when I do:

sudo npm install -g n

I get the error:

sudo: npm: command not found

npm works without sudo. When I do:

whereis node

I see:

node: /usr/bin/node /usr/lib/node /usr/bin/X11/node /usr/local/node

Running:

which npm

Shows:

/usr/local/node/bin/npm

I tried the solution at https://stackoverflow.com/a/5062718/1246159

But I'm still getting the same error. I also looked at the /etc/sudoers file and the relevant line is:

Defaults        secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"

This looks fine to me. How can I possibly get NPM working with sudo command?

15
  • 6
    Does this work? sudo /usr/bin/npm install -g n
    – robertklep
    Commented Jul 17, 2015 at 11:42
  • 2
    Can you try reinstalling node? It sounds like you deleted npm.
    – Jeff Sloyer
    Commented Jul 17, 2015 at 12:28
  • 1
    You may have added /usr/local/node/bin to your $PATH, but npm should be installed in /usr/local/bin. The first directory isn't in secure_path which explains why sudo can't find it.
    – robertklep
    Commented Jul 17, 2015 at 16:01
  • 8
    Using nvm on Ubuntu here - with @robertklep comment, I tried sudo /home/${user}/.nvm/version/node/${version}/bin/npm install and it worked.
    – Stav Geffen
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 14:18
  • 2
    It solved my problem by reinstalling from following package. nodejs.org/en/download
    – Marghoob Suleman
    Commented Nov 4, 2016 at 4:59

31 Answers 31

Reset to default
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2
355

I had to do 

sudo apt-get install npm

that worked for me.

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  • 17
    It's hard to understand what you want to express.
    – tiny sunlight
    Commented Jan 1, 2016 at 18:29
  • 6
    This is out of date. What worked for me was these commands I found in here: github.com/nodesource/distributions#debinstall # Using Ubuntu curl -sL deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | sudo -E bash - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs # Using Debian, as root curl -sL deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | bash - apt-get install -y nodejs
    – Hamed
    Commented Mar 27, 2016 at 9:13
  • 7
    @tinysunlight Im not sure what is unclear. The op says the npm command is missing. This command installs the npm command.
    – Velocibadgery
    Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 1:59
  • 54
    This is not the correct answer to the question because it is obvious from the op that npm is already installed but not reachable when invoked through sudo. With this solution you reinstall npm which is already existing. This is fighting symptoms rather than finding the cause. I understand that this might correct broken things for some people, but it is misleading, standing like this.
    – Dominic
    Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 15:43
  • 11
    When I installed node using NVM on Ubuntu 18.10, sudo doesn't recognize npm as a command. sudo apt-get install npm worked for me.
    – AlienKevin
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 17:39
176

The npm file should be in /usr/local/bin/npm. If it's not there, install node.js again with the package on their website. This worked in my case.

6
  • thx. If you install node in other data drives, where os is not installed, you can not find this path.
    – Hardik Darji
    Commented Feb 9, 2018 at 7:32
  • 1
    in the case of mac os with homebrew.. two steps to do is to (1) which node (2) which npm which should be both in /usr/local/bin (where homebrew installs/symlinks node+npm)... to resolve.. try (1) brew doctor (2) brew reinstall node if its still giving issues.. check your path (echo $PATH). you must have multiple bin locations that point to various node installations..if that is the case... cleanup (as in make it neater) your ~/.bashrc / ~/.bash_profile, so /usr/local/bin is there loaded without another one pointing to a random node installation.
    – mirageglobe
    Commented Mar 10, 2019 at 18:15
  • 9
    This is a partial solution. The issue occurs when you manually install node. You must softlink each installed binary into /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin. Setting the path in root's bashrc will not work as it is not read during sudo therefore this is the only way it seems unless you install package.
    – shrimpwagon
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 14:02
  • 3
    as @shrimpwagon said, the bottom of manual instructions tell you to link "sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/nodejs/node-$VERSION-$DISTRO/bin/node /usr/bin/node sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/nodejs/node-$VERSION-$DISTRO/bin/npm /usr/bin/npm sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/nodejs/node-$VERSION-$DISTRO/bin/npx /usr/bin/npx"
    – James Nelson
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 6:56
  • 2
    Why shoudl I use THEIR website?
    – user271832
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 16:17
139

For MAC users, the follow steps worked for me.

If you get Error for Brew, Here's the command you need to type first in the terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Then run following commands: 
$ brew update
$ brew uninstall node
$ brew install node
$ brew postinstall
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  • 11
    The brew uninstall node did not work for me, but I carried on with the brew install node and brew postinstall and it fixed the problem. Thanks
    – Trevor
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 12:40
  • 6
    What does brew postinstall do exactly?
    – Oliver D
    Commented Feb 5, 2020 at 14:16
  • 10
    in Homebrew version 2.2.14 brew postinstall is redundant
    – Arslan Khan
    Commented Apr 30, 2020 at 20:20
  • In my case, brew install node was unable to overwrite the symlink of an older version. I had to run brew link --overwrite node which fixed the problem.
    – not2savvy
    Commented Feb 14, 2022 at 14:54
93

I had the same problem; here are the commands to fix it:

  • sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/node /usr/bin/node
  • sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/node /usr/lib/node
  • sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/bin/npm
  • sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/node-waf /usr/bin/node-waf
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  • 3
    Worked for me on CentOS 7
    – hirikarate
    Commented Dec 30, 2016 at 11:39
  • 8
    Worked for me Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS. I use NVM so the first path was to where NVM installed node and npm (the path includes a version %HOME%/.nvm/versions/node/v7.4.0/bin/npm). Unfortunate that I will have to reference this answer each time I update using NVM due to how the version in the path will change
    – kas
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 13:52
  • 1
    This solved it for me as well! Originally posted on Stack Overflow: On EC2: sudo node command not found, but node without sudo is ok
    – Dominic
    Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 15:59
  • 5
    @kas sudo ln -s $(whereis node) /usr/bin/node And so on. in your bash profile.
    – Aravind Voggu
    Commented Nov 28, 2017 at 8:24
  • Worked for me in AWS ec2 instance.
    – Chirag Purohit
    Commented Aug 27, 2018 at 8:08
35

** EDIT **

WARNING! - Doing a chmod 777 is a fairly radical solution. Try these first, one at a time, and stop when one works:

  • $ sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
  • $ sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local/lib/node_modules
  • $ sudo chmod g+w /usr/local/lib
  • $ sudo chmod g+rwx /usr/local/lib

$ brew postinstall node is the only install part where I would get a problem

Permission denied - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/.github

So I

// !! READ EDIT ABOVE BEFORE RUNNING THIS CODE !!
$ sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local/lib
$ brew postinstall node

and viola, npm is now linked

$ npm -v
3.10.10

Extra

If you used -R 777 on lib my recommendation would be to set nested files and directories to a default setting:

  • $ find /usr/local/lib -type f -print -exec chmod 644 {} \;
  • $ find /usr/local/lib -type d -print -exec chmod 755 {} \;
  • $ chmod /usr/local/lib 755
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  • 6
    @Jacksonkr .....did you just recommended chmoding 777 the entire local/lib folder?
    – sebastianf182
    Commented Jul 24, 2017 at 21:21
  • What chmod should this directory be?
    – tim_xyz
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 3:54
  • 1
    @tim_xyz drwxr-xr-x are the defaults for lib. That said, do NOT use the recursive feature -R when setting the folder back.
    – Jacksonkr
    Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 13:02
  • Thanks! sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local/lib/node_modules worked for me
    – Hisagr
    Commented Jan 21, 2019 at 17:46
  • Don't ever chmod 777 unless you have a damned good reason to.
    – Timothy Pulliam
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 2:07
23

I had to do the following:

  1. brew update
  2. brew uninstall node
  3. Visit https://nodejs.org/en/ download the file
  4. Install the downloaded file
0
15

If you installed node/npm with nvm, the nvm environment configuration file has to be run before you can use either package.

This is generally found in ~/.nvm/nvm.sh.

To run this automatically, include:

source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

in the .bash_profile file for your user

If you then want to use sudo with that user, make sure to include the -i parameter to make sudo set the user environment. eg

sudo -iu jenkins npm install grunt-cli
13

You can resolve this by creating symbolic links for npm and node which is quick and simple:

sudo ln -s $(which npm) /usr/local/bin/npm
sudo ln -s $(which node) /usr/local/bin/node

I'm using which to get the location and then passing that in as a variable to the command e.g. $(which npm).

I'm creating a symbolic link for node as well because npm depends on node.

Then you can just:

sudo npm -v

No need to reinstall node or go wild with chmod on whole directories.

I've tested this on ubuntu but it should work on most linux distros.

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  • This gives: ln: /usr/local/bin/node: File exists
    – Marcie
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 17:44
  • 1
    For npx sudo ln -s $(which npx) /usr/local/bin/npx
    – foxiris
    Commented 2 days ago
12

You can make symbolic link & its works.

  1. find path of current npm

which npm

  1. make symbolic link by following command

sudo ln -s **which/npm** /usr/local/bin/npm

  1. Test and verify.

sudo npm -v

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  • 2
    the simplest solution, worked perfect for me, just had to do the same with node
    – Evgeny
    Commented Jul 2, 2021 at 21:02
  • 1
    @dipenparmar12 I tried the same, but now I'm getting /usr/bin/env: ‘node’: Not a directory
    – Peter Nimmo
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 16:39
  • 1
    ~/.nvm/versions/node/v14.19.1/bin/npm: No such file or directory
    – Marcie
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 17:43
  • 2
    Now getting /usr/bin/env: ‘node’: No such file or directory
    – StrandedKitty
    Commented Apr 2 at 7:55
11

On macOS, this worked for me:

brew reinstall node
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  • 2
    Sorry just noticed the question is tagged with unix, but it might still be helpful since it's the top Google search result for "macos npm command not found"
    – friederbluemle
    Commented Nov 2, 2019 at 1:33
10

In order to install npm packages globally with sudo permission, /usr/bin/npm should be available. If npm exists on some other directory, create a soft link like: 

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/bin/npm

It works on Fedora 25, node8.0.0 and npm5.0.0

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  • Simple and effective, worked for me on linux mint 20.
    – avlnx
    Commented Aug 2, 2020 at 17:12
  • This should be the best answer! Thanks dude it worked for me
    – Dilunga the Great
    Commented May 12, 2021 at 12:41
  • This worked on ubuntu 22.04
    – Mahesh Ghamaand
    Commented Nov 10, 2022 at 13:57
  • This is bad advice. You should not mess with /usr/bin on modern platforms. The proper fix in this scenario is to add /usr/local/bin to the PATH of sudo
    – tripleee
    Commented Mar 7 at 4:53
8

For CentOS users, this works for me:

sudo yum install npm
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  • 1
    the problem with this approach is that in Fedora for example, it is very outdated in dnf / yum repos
    – ACV
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 18:37
  • 3
    On CentOS 7 you need to enable EPEL repo first: yum install epel-release; yum install npm
    – hudolejev
    Commented May 24, 2017 at 13:00
7

For debian after installing node enter

curl -k -O -L https://npmjs.org/install.sh    
ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node  
sh install.sh
2
  • Also solved on Ubuntu 20.4
    – Tropin Alexey
    Commented Jun 28, 2022 at 8:12
  • You should not mess with /usr/bin. You can ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/local/bin/node if you like, though. But I think this has been fixed in more recent Debian versions.
    – tripleee
    Commented Mar 7 at 4:54
5

simply reinstall .

On RHEL, CentOS and Fedora

sudo yum remove nodejs npm
sudo dnf remove nodejs npm   [On Fedora 22+ versions]

then

yum -y install nodejs npm
dnf -y install nodejs npm   [On Fedora 22+ versions]

easy!.. both node and npm works like a charm now!

2

I resolved this problem by

apt-get install npm2deb
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  • 3
    what is this answer? npm2deb is a 3rd party
    – Beau Bouchard
    Commented Oct 4, 2017 at 15:56
  • 1
    it's not entirely "trusted" as in 3rd party can be more likely compromised than from npm directly from the source. i don't know anything about npm2deb but think about if you wanted to use it at your company, they'd probably be strict about auditing it
    – Kyle Calica-St
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 3:37
2

My solution is:

sudo -E env "PATH=$PATH" n stable

Works fine for me.

Found it here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29400598/861615

This happens because you have change default global packages directory

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  • 1
    This is the only answer that doesn't introduce tons of other problems (like having two installations, messing up permissions, etc etc.)
    – derpedy-doo
    Commented Aug 20, 2023 at 14:48
2

Work for me Resolving EACCES permissions errors when installing packages globally

To minimize the chance of permissions errors, you can configure npm to use a different directory. In this example, you will create and use hidden directory in your home directory.

Back up your computer. On the command line, in your home directory, create a directory for global installations:

 mkdir ~/.npm-global

Configure npm to use the new directory path:

 npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'

In your preferred text editor, open or create a ~/.profile file and add this line:

 export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH

On the command line, update your system variables:

 source ~/.profile

To test your new configuration, install a package globally without using sudo:

 npm install -g jshint
0
1

If you have downloaded node package and extracted somewhere like /opt you can simply create symbolic link inside /usr/local/bin. 

/usr/local/bin/npm -> /opt/node-v4.6.0-linux-x64/bin/npm
/usr/local/bin/node -> /opt/node-v4.6.0-linux-x64/bin/node
1

So, for those using:

NVM and homebrew

make sure to set node version. For me, my node version was no longer set. So, I checked what versions I had using

nvm ls

this listed v16.13.1, so I set it to use this

nvm use 16

once my node version was set, npm commands worked again

0

I had the same issue,the reason for it was npm package manager was not installed while installing node. This was caused because of the following mistake: In the installation process there is a step called "Custom Setup", here you have the option to choose one of the following: 1) Node.js runtime (This is selected by default). 2) npm package manager 3) Online documentation shortcuts. 4) Add to Path. If you proceed as it is npm package manager will not be installed and hence you will get the error.

Solution: Select npm package manager when you get these options. This worked for me.

0

Appended npm binary path to sudo path using visudo and editing "secure_path"

Now "sudo npm" works

0

I also had the same issue in Homestead and tried many ways. I tried with

sudo apt-get install nodejs

I get the following error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 npm : Depends: nodejs but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-abbrev (>= 1.0.4) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-ansi (>= 0.3.0-2) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-ansi-color-table but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-archy but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-block-stream but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-fstream (>= 0.1.22) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-fstream-ignore but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-github-url-from-git but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-glob (>= 3.1.21) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-graceful-fs (>= 2.0.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-inherits but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-ini (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-lockfile but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-lru-cache (>= 2.3.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-minimatch (>= 0.2.11) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-mkdirp (>= 0.3.3) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-gyp (>= 0.10.9) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-nopt (>= 3.0.1) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-npmlog but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-once but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-osenv but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-read but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-read-package-json (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-request (>= 2.25.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-retry but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-rimraf (>= 2.2.2) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-semver (>= 2.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-sha but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-slide but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-tar (>= 0.1.18) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-underscore but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-which but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Finally I tried with

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

It worked fine.

root@homestead:/usr/local/bin# npm -v
3.10.10

root@homestead:/usr/local/bin# node -v
v6.13.0
0

Since I have installed node.js using .tar file available on node.js, I had to put the location of the node directory on:

~/.bashrc

of root by changing from normal user to root using command:

sudo -i

then I had to add the path to node where I extracted it into .bashrc file as below: enter image description here

then refereshed .bashrc using

. ~/.bashrc

there after 

npm: command not found

went away

0

Instead of Installing node again which seems like the accepted solution, The Problem is there are no permissions to the nodejs folder/usr/local.
Enter the following command sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local/nodejs/

0

In my case, for some reason after installing some python modules, I suddenly start getting messages saying node is not installed or is not recognized as a command. Upon checking, my path is registered in .bashrc. So, I sourced that file, and everything started working again.

source .bashrc

0

Works fine for me...

on my anoter PC

mkdir TEST
cd TEST
npm init -y
npm install npm

then copy poject folder with installed npm to destination pc

cd TEST
chmod +x node_modules/.bin/npm
node_modules/.bin/npm install -g npm

then install npm using -g key...

-1

Remove Node completely:

  brew uninstall --force node

Install again:

brew install node;
which node # => /usr/local/bin/node
export NODE_PATH='/usr/local/lib/node_modules'
-1

In case could be useful for anyone that uses rh-* packages this worked for me:

sudo ln -s /opt/rh/rh-nodejs8/root/usr/bin/npm /usr/local/bin/npm
-2

If you are using linux delete node_modules folder that exists in /usr/lib

sudo rm -rf node-modules

then reinstall node using curl:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install curl build-essential
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs
1
  • 6
    It helps more if you supply an explanation why this is the preferred solution and explain how it works. We want to educate, not just provide code.
    – the Tin Man
    Commented Mar 11, 2022 at 5:43
-3

My workaround was to login as root and now I don't have to use sudo again

su root
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