Maximum call stack size exceeded on npm install

Question

I'm trying to run npm install, this is output from console:

npm ERR! Linux 4.8.0-27-generic
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v6.9.1
npm ERR! npm  v3.10.8

npm ERR! Maximum call stack size exceeded
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

and this is content of npm-debug.log:

113791 verbose stack RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
113791 verbose stack     at Object.color (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/node_modules/console-control-strings/index.js:115:32)
113791 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.log._format (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/log.js:252:51)
113791 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/log.js:138:24)
113791 verbose stack     at emitThree (events.js:116:13)
113791 verbose stack     at emit (events.js:194:7)
113791 verbose stack     at .<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/node_modules/are-we-there-yet/tracker-group.js:23:18)
113791 verbose stack     at emitThree (events.js:116:13)
113791 verbose stack     at emit (events.js:194:7)
113791 verbose stack     at .<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/node_modules/are-we-there-yet/tracker-group.js:23:18)
113791 verbose stack     at emitThree (events.js:116:13)
113791 verbose stack     at emit (events.js:194:7)
113792 verbose cwd /home/giorgi/AdMove/dev/web-advertiser-admove
113793 error Linux 4.8.0-27-generic
113794 error argv "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install"
113795 error node v6.9.1
113796 error npm  v3.10.8
113797 error Maximum call stack size exceeded
113798 error If you need help, you may report this error at:
113798 error     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
113799 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Removed node_modules several times and tried to reinstall. Can't understand what's the reason that causes this and how to fix it.

Answer 1

metzelder's answer helped me fix the issue. however if you run the command npm cache clean, it will give you a message

As of npm@5, the npm cache self-heals from corruption issues and data extracted from the cache is guaranteed to be valid

So, as of npm5 you can do by adding a --force flag to the command.

So the command is:

npm cache clean --force

Answer 2

npm rebuild it has solved my problem

Answer 3

Try removing package-lock.json and the node_modules folder:

rm package-lock.json
rm -r node_modules

Answer 4

I had the same issue with npm install. After a lot of search, I found out that removing your .npmrc file or its content (found at %USERPROFILE%/.npmrc), will solve this issue. This worked for me.

Answer 5

npm uninstall

npm cache clean --force

I tried these two methods but they didn't work. After, I deleted the node_modules directory and ran npm install again, it still didn't work. Lastly, I deleted package-lock.json and created a new package-lock.json file using

npm install

Answer 6

I have overcome this issue by doing following:

• Delete all the content of the npm dependencies. You can find the default install location according to this thread: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5926706/1850297

• Before you run npm install command, I suggest to run npm cache clean --force

Answer 7

In my case, update to the newest version:

npm install -g npm

Answer 8

npm rebuild will work for sure

Answer 9

I deleted

node_modules

and then reinstalled by

npm install

It worked for me

Answer 10

I have also faced the same problem and this is how i resolved it.

1. First of all you need to make sure that your node and npm versions are up to date. if not please upgrade your node and npm packages to latest versions.

   nvm install 12.18.3 // update node version through node version manager
   
   npm install npm // update your npm version to latest
   

2. Delete your node_modules folder and package-lock.json file.

3. Force clean the entire NPM cache by using following comand.

   npm cache clean --force
   

4. Re-Install all the dependencies.

   npm install
   

5. If above step didn't resolve your problem, try to re-install your dependencies after executing following command.

   npm rebuild
   

Answer 11

This issue can also happen if you're trying to install a package that doesn't exist or if you're trying to install a version that doesn't exist.

Answer 12

npm cache clean returns below message

As of npm@5, the npm cache self-heals from corruption issues and data extracted from the cache is guaranteed to be valid. If you want to make sure everything is consistent, use 'npm cache verify' instead. On the other hand, if you're debugging an issue with the installer, you can use npm install --cache /tmp/empty-cache to use a temporary cache instead of nuking the actual one.

If you run npm cache verify, as specified above, then it actually runs cache verification and garbage collection which fixes the problem.

Cache verified and compressed (~\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache_cacache): Content verified: 6183 (447214684 bytes) Content garbage-collected: 16 (653745 bytes) Index entries: 9633

Answer 13

TLDR

For those of you using NVM, make sure you're using the right version of Node & NPM!

Background

I started getting this error after I started using NVM for a different project. When I went to run npm install on a project for my work, I got this error stating that the maximum call stack size had been exceeded.

This turned out to be caused by me using Node 12 and its accompanying NPM version while I should've been using Node 16.

Solution

Switch to a more recent version of Node & NPM;
nvm use <version> (for example, nvm use 16)

Answer 14

Happened in docker (node:15-buster) for me.

Remember to use WORKDIR /<folder> so that it doesn't conflict with original npm libraries installed.

The folder can be anything but system folders, so that includes using /.

Answer 15

In case none of these answer work for you, it may be because the terminal you're using isn't the right one/ your node_modules is used by another part of your computer.

In my case I kept juggling between this error (maximum call stack size exceeded) and the access error event when I did a sudo npm i.

The fix was to close my IDE (which was WebStorm), run npm i in a basic terminal, and that was it.

Answer 16

In my case I had a custom .npmrc file that included an auth token for authenticating with a private npm registry.

The token had expired, which helpfully returned code E401: Incorrect or missing password locally, but ERR! Maximum call stack size exceeded from the CI build.

Answer 17

I'm not a Windows user, so if you are, try to check Rene Knop comment.

For Unix/OSX users, I've removed the root .npmrc file ~/.npmrc.
Before you're going to try it, please, check if there is nothing necessary over there you can use this command to bring all content into your terminal: cat ~/.npmrc .

If you have got something like:

cat: /Users/$USER/.npmrc: No such file or directory

to save a copy:

cp ~/.npmrc ~/.npmrc_copy

Now, try to remove it (Works for bash users: Unix / Ubuntu / OSX ...):

rm -f ~/.npmrc

This worked for me.
Hope this will be helpful for others.

Answer 18

I also had the same problem. I had tried the previous solutions, but the solution for me was much simpler. I only had to remove the space in the directory and then run npm i again

Thanks to: https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/issues/809#issuecomment-155019383 for pointing this out.

Answer 19

In general, once a module has been installed, it's much more convenient to use npm ci instead of npm install. Please check out this SO answer for the advantages of the former with respect to the later in a production environment. So please just run

npm ci

All dependencies will be updated, and the problem will disappear. Or it will error in the case there's some grave de-synchronization between one and the other.

Answer 20

You uninstall npm package and force clean the cache and close terminal and reinstall whichever package be.

$sudo npm uninstall <package - name>
$sudo npm cache clean --force

Then restart terminal and check

Still not working upgrade both npm and node to the latest version

Answer 21

Today we encountered this error when running an npm prune even after running an npm cache clean --force.

Versions:

node 13.8.0 
npm 6.13.6

Deleting the package-lock.json worked for this case as well. Thank you all!

Answer 22

Most of the times, this issue occurs if you are using the system provided by the organization you work for and it's vpn restricts the use of this command. In this case, you may try to disconnect from organization vpn and then execute this command.

Answer 23

I tried everything to fix this issue on my Mac. I think the issue started when I had already downloaded npm from Node.js and then reinstalled it with Homebrew while following along with a Team Treehouse video.

Here's what I tried:

From https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/removing-npm

sudo npm uninstall npm -g
sudo make uninstall
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/npm*

From How do I completely uninstall Node.js, and reinstall from beginning (Mac OS X)

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/{npm*,node*,man1/node*}

Here's what worked:

In the end, the only thing that worked for me was to clone down the npm-reinstall repo from GitHub that completely removed everything related to npm on my Mac.

https://github.com/brock/node-reinstall

I then had to reinstall node and npm from Node.js.

Answer 24

I tried everything to fix this issue on my windows 7 machine like

Reinstalling and rebuilding npm

At last, I fixed this small configuration setting issue by wasting my entire day.

How I resolved this issue

Removing my project specific configurations in global .npmrc at location like drive:/Windows/Users/../.npmrc

Answer 25

I solved it 100% I had this problem with gulp version: 3.5.6.

You should clean the package-lock.js and then run npm install and It worked form

Answer 26

Our company dev environment uses Artifactory as the default registry for our NPM dependencies, and when running npm install it was defaulting to this, which did not work... so manually specifying the main npm registry via npm install --registry https://registry.npmjs.org fixed this issue for me...

Answer 27

I was facing the same error, I was trying to install jest into to one of the packages in a monorepo project.

If you are using Yarn + Learna to package a monorepo project, you will have to navigate to the package.json inside the target package and then run npm install or npm install <package name>.

Answer 28

Try this first!

Run npm install again

Crazily simple, but I don't know who else tried this so thought I should put it up here, despite all the existing answers. I suggest people try this first though, given it's the simplest solution and doesn't come with the risks others have noted when, say, deleting package-lock.json

Theory:

This is totally unproven as I'm just doing this to run a code screen (i.e. a totally new repo to me) and I guessed that some of the packages had been installed the first time npm install was run; it just ran out of resources later on.

I guessed that if I ran npm install again it would skip the install of the now-installed packages and complete, or at least get further. The behaviour I guessed at was what I saw but I didn't actually debug or test if this behaviour was for the reasons I guessed!

Clearly a lot of different things have worked for different people, but I thought I should add an answer to this already well-answered question on the basis it's the most trivial to do.

And if you're lucky it's going to run for long enough for you to grab a 🍵 or ☕ 😉

Answer 29

I had this problem and it was due to an upgrade of my git executable. I rolled back to Git-2.21.0.rc1.windows.1-64-bit and added this to my environment path and it fixed my issue.

Answer 30

The one thing that finally worked for me on Mac was upgrading from node 8.12 to 10.x using NVM.

I uninstalled all other versions of Node with NVM, then installed 10.x, then ran nvm alias default node, which tells NVM to always default to the latest available node version on a shell.

After that, my live reloading issue went away!