Node-gyp: Upon trying to install module as a privileged user (root) NPM gets stuck in a loop

[alexandrubau]

• Node Version:
  node 8.9.4 / npm 5.6.0
• Platform:
  Linux apollo 4.4.0-87-generic #110-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 18 12:55:35 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Compiler:

Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=cc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.5' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-5/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,ada,c++,java,go,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-5 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --with-default-libstdcxx-abi=new --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-vtable-verify --enable-libmpx --enable-plugin --with-system-zlib --disable-browser-plugin --enable-java-awt=gtk --enable-gtk-cairo --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-5-amd64/jre --enable-java-home --with-jvm-root-dir=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-5-amd64 --with-jvm-jar-dir=/usr/lib/jvm-exports/java-1.5.0-gcj-5-amd64 --with-arch-directory=amd64 --with-ecj-jar=/usr/share/java/eclipse-ecj.jar --enable-objc-gc --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --enable-multilib --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 5.4.0 20160609 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.5) 

• Module:
  node-sass

Verbose output (from npm or node-gyp):

gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.9.4
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4
gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.9.4' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.9.4"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.9.4
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.9.4
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4
gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.9.4' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.9.4"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.9.4
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.9.4
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4
gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.9.4' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.9.4"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.9.4
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.9.4
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4
gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.9.4' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.9.4"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.9.4
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.9.4
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4
gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.9.4' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.9.4"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.9.4
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.9.4
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4
gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.9.4' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.9.4"
gyp verb install installing version: 8.9.4
gyp verb install --ensure was passed, so won't reinstall if already installed
gyp verb install version not already installed, continuing with install 8.9.4
gyp verb ensuring nodedir is created /var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4
gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp/8.9.4"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/var/www/test/node_modules/node-sass/.node-gyp"
gyp verb tmpdir == cwd automatically will remove dev files after to save disk space
gyp verb command install [ '8.9.4' ]
gyp verb install input version string "8.9.4"

Upon trying to install node-sass as a privileged user (root) NPM gets stuck in a loop.

I'm not trying to install node-sass as a global package so this cannot apply: https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/fixing-npm-permissions.

Screen share here.

Steps to reproduce

• Make sure you are authenticated as a privileged user (root)
• Run npm init --yes
• Run npm install node-sass --save

[bnoordhuis]

Thanks for the bug report. Good write-up. Can you check if #1384 fixes it?

[arocki7]

Hi @bnoordhuis

I have the same problem. As the npm install configured as a part of the app build, most of our Jenkins jobs are knocked down. We can't manually install and try the steps.

it needs some serious fixing soon.

Thanks.

[bnoordhuis]

Well, did the PR work for you?

[arocki7]

Nope, It didn't work for me.

[bnoordhuis]

@arocki7 Then it's probably not the same issue. Can you file a new bug report and post steps to reproduce and anything else that is relevant?

[arocki7]

@bnoordhuis will do.

[feikede]

I also get that error on a clean ubuntu 17 (artful) install. Just setup Ubuntu, then install nodejs 8.10 LTS, then try to install sudo npm install -g @angular/cli or sudo npm install -g node-sass.

As a workaround I could npm install node-sass and then copy the node-sass and node-gyp from local node_modules to /usr/lib/node_modules.

[sschmitz]

I encountered the same issue yesterday trying to install posix (just as in the initial report, mkdir tmp; cd tmp; npm init --yes; npm install posix --save;). After finding this bug report and seeing that it was fixed, I tried upgrading the npm-bundled copy as per the Wiki. That, unfortunately, did not do anything, because npm actually bundles _two_ copies of node-gyp, the other one located under the npm-lifecycle module. So,

npm explore npm -g -- npm explore npm-lifecycle -- npm install npmjs/node-gyp

did the trick. (Can someone confirm that invocation makes sense? If yes, that might be a fine addition to the wiki page.)

No infinite loop happens anymore when I try to install the posix package now. However, the behavior of node-gyp is pretty nonsensical:

maxwell /root/tmp # npm install posix --save

> [email protected] install /root/tmp/node_modules/posix
> node-gyp rebuild

gyp WARN EACCES user "root" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/root/.node-gyp/8.10.0"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/root/tmp/node_modules/posix/.node-gyp"
gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: EACCES: permission denied, stat '/root/tmp/node_modules/posix/.node-gyp/8.10.0'
gyp ERR! System Linux 4.4.0-116-generic
gyp ERR! command "/opt/node-v8.10.0-linux-x64/bin/node" "/opt/node-v8.10.0-linux-x64/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-lifecycle/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /root/tmp/node_modules/posix
gyp ERR! node -v v8.10.0
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v4.0.0
gyp ERR! not ok 

• I'm pretty sure root does have permission to access these paths, but uid 500 does not. osenv.user() shows the value of an environment variable, not the name of process.geteuid() -- which, ironically, is what I wanted to be able to do using the posix package in the first place :laughing:
• After the first EACCES, node-gyp tries to instead select a temporary directory -- for some reason, however, it gets what seems to be its working directory back from os.tmpdir() ...?

AFAICS, I can work around this by manually specifying /tmp/.node-gyp as the dev dir. However, the process then still does not have permission to write to the directories where the binaries should actually end up ... but I guess that is a problem (well, questionable design decision?) on the npm end. I'm not sure if there is anything that can be done in node-gyp at all (except the "root does not have permission" thing -- no idea about the tmpdir), so this bug is probably fixed alright, but the experience is far from satisfactory.

Edit: Aaaand just now I found out about --unsafe-perm, which solves all these issues. Maybe an info message in case of an EACCES when process.geteuid() == 500 might be prudent?

[magnafilix]

Hey people, if this even can make any "profit" for you, I am mean if this is still relevant - in order to solve this issue with "root" user all you need to include in your command: sudo npm install *any package name here*-> just add the flag --unsafe-perm

This is well described here: https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/issues/454

[Diosan]

Hey people, if this even can make any "profit" for you, I am mean if this is still relevant - in order to solve this issue with "root" user all you need to include in your command: sudo npm install *any package name here*-> just add the flag --unsafe-perm

This is well described here: #454

@magnafilix thank you for this. You saved me so much time with this.