Markbind: User guide: improve installation instructions for Linux

[okkhoy]

Tell us about your environment
Ubuntu 18.04

• MarkBind Version:

1.10.0

What did you do? Please include the actual source code causing the issue.

On execution the command : sudo npm install -g markbind-cli from the terminal, I get the following error:

anarayan@BuntuBox:~$ sudo npm install -g markbind-cli
npm ERR! code 1
npm ERR! Command failed: /usr/bin/git clone --depth=1 -q -b v3.10.0-markbind.1 git://github.com/MarkBind/htmlparser2.git /home/anarayan/.npm/_cacache/tmp/git-clone-95c44500
npm ERR! /home/anarayan/.npm/_cacache/tmp/git-clone-95c44500/.git: Permission denied
npm ERR! 

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/anarayan/.npm/_logs/2018-07-30T14_38_48_364Z-debug.log

Next I tried npm install -g markbind-cli without sudo
That errors out as follows:

anarayan@BuntuBox:~$  npm install -g markbind-cli
npm WARN checkPermissions Missing write access to /usr/lib/node_modules
npm ERR! path /usr/lib/node_modules
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR! syscall access
npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied, access '/usr/lib/node_modules'
npm ERR!  { Error: EACCES: permission denied, access '/usr/lib/node_modules'
npm ERR!   stack: 'Error: EACCES: permission denied, access \'/usr/lib/node_modules\'',
npm ERR!   errno: -13,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   syscall: 'access',
npm ERR!   path: '/usr/lib/node_modules' }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  npm update check failed                   │
│            Try running with sudo or get access             │
│            to the local update config store via            │
│ sudo chown -R $USER:$(id -gn $USER) /home/anarayan/.config │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/anarayan/.npm/_logs/2018-07-30T14_39_27_950Z-debug.log

Installation goes through now with sudo

anarayan@BuntuBox:~$ sudo npm install -g markbind-cli
npm WARN notice [SECURITY] string has the following vulnerability: 1 high. Go here for more details: https://nodesecurity.io/advisories?search=string&version=3.3.3 - Run `npm i npm@latest -g` to upgrade your npm version, and then `npm audit` to get more info.
npm WARN notice [SECURITY] debug has the following vulnerability: 1 low. Go here for more details: https://nodesecurity.io/advisories?search=debug&version=2.2.0 - Run `npm i npm@latest -g` to upgrade your npm version, and then `npm audit` to get more info.
/usr/bin/markbind -> /usr/lib/node_modules/markbind-cli/index.js

> [email protected] postinstall /usr/lib/node_modules/markbind-cli/node_modules/nunjucks
> node postinstall-build.js src

npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: [email protected] (node_modules/markbind-cli/node_modules/fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for [email protected]: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})

+ [email protected]
added 413 packages in 25.629s

The exact same sequence of outcomes happened on Ubuntu 16.04 (Virtual Machine) as well.

Not sure if it is markbind issue or npm; feel free to close this issue if it is not markbind related.

What did you expect to happen?

What actually happened? Please include the actual, raw output.

[yamgent]

If you type npm list -g, does the first line say usr/lib?

Can reproduce this issue when npm is configured to install packages in usr/lib (this is the directory used if Node.js is installed this way).

I was able to fix this problem by configuring npm to install stuff in ~/.npm-global, which doesn't require messing around with permissions. The instructions can be found on the npmjs docs here.

[yamgent]

While it is not a MarkBind problem, I think the user guide can be edited to mention the appropriate solution under the installation instructions section, since I suspect this will be a common issue to Linux users.

[okkhoy]

@yamgent Thanks for the links! Yes, I installed using the package manager. I have now set the default npm directory to a location that is more permissive.