npm install failing. Symlink problems?

[Sparticuz]

npm ERR! Linux 3.4.0+
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v4.4.2
npm ERR! npm v3.8.5
npm ERR! path ../mime/cli.js
npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! errno -1
npm ERR! syscall symlink

npm ERR! Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink '../mime/cli.js' -> '/mnt/c/users/kyle/Documents/dev/listomaniapi/node_modules/.bin/mime'
npm ERR! at Error (native)
npm ERR! { [Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink '../mime/cli.js' -> '/mnt/c/users/kyle/Documents/dev/listomaniapi/node_modules/.bin/mime']
npm ERR! errno: -1,
npm ERR! code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR! syscall: 'symlink',
npm ERR! path: '../mime/cli.js',
npm ERR! dest: '/mnt/c/users/kyle/Documents/dev/listomaniapi/node_modules/.bin/mime',
npm ERR! parent: 'listomaniapi' }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR! /mnt/c/users/kyle/Documents/dev/listomaniapi/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! code 1
root@localhost:~/dev/listomaniapi#

[cowens]

How did you try to install npm?

[Sparticuz]

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | bash -
apt-get install nodejs

It's what is on nodejs.org's site

[filipeaguiar]

I've got a similar error when trying to install node and npm using nvm

[ThaJay]

same thing here.
A subdependency would love to make a symlink, and npm i fails because it can't.
We have symlinks in cmd through mklink /J so I don't really get why it's not possible through WSL yet.

npm ERR! Error: EPERM, symlink '../JSONStream/index.js'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EPERM, symlink '../JSONStream/index.js'] errno: 50, code: 'EPERM', path: '../JSONStream/index.js' }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! System Linux 3.4.0+
npm ERR! command "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "i"
npm ERR! cwd /mnt/c/dev/scan-app
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.25
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.10
npm ERR! path ../JSONStream/index.js
npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! errno 50
npm ERR! stack Error: EPERM, symlink '../JSONStream/index.js'

[therocco]

Using this I've had some luck installing some npm modules, but it still does have issues with permission errors whenever npm tries to rename a file.

INSTALL GLOBAL NPM PACKAGES
npm config set unsafe-perm true

CLEAN CACHE
npm cache clean

BYPASS SYMLINK ISSUES
npm install --no-bin-links

[Sparticuz]

We have symlinks in cmd through mklink /J so I don't really get why it's not possible through WSL yet.

What's odd is the ln -s seems to work fine

[sergiogarciadev]

In my tests, using pip, I was unable to create a virtualenv in my user folder.

root@localhost:/mnt/c/Users/sergi/demoubuntu# virtualenv py27
New python executable in py27/bin/python
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/virtualenv", line 3, in <module>
    virtualenv.main()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 825, in main
    symlink=options.symlink)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 985, in create_environment
    site_packages=site_packages, clear=clear, symlink=symlink))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1405, in install_python
    os.symlink(py_executable_base, full_pth)
OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted

But was able to create inside Ubuntu filesystem

root@localhost:/home# virtualenv py27
New python executable in py27/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip...done.

[Sparticuz]

I think you've got the ln -s backwards, mine created just fine inside bash
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 Apr 7 01:24 dev -> /mnt/c/users/kyle/Documents/dev/

[ThaJay]

I was unable to use ln -s on /mnt/c/ (Operation not permitted) but it did work for me in the unix filesystem, for instance at ~/. a symlink created through mklink /J in cmd showed up in my bash, but it did look a bit strange (same for normal mklink):

$ l
ls: cannot access core: Input/output error
total 8.0K
d????????? ? ?    ?       ?            ? core/
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1.2K Apr  7 15:54 index.js*
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root    0 Mar 31 16:14 subcomponents/
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root    0 Mar 31 16:14 viewcomponents/

thanks nerdofsteel for the suggestions. I too ran into the rename issue when trying to globally install a module. The no symlinks option seems to work like a charm for my local dependencies.

[sergiogarciadev]

I think the problem for both virtualenv and npm is that those tools tries to create links to the Lxss filesystem.

root@localhost:/mnt/c/Users/sergi# ln -s /root .
ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘./root’: Operation not permitted

[filipeaguiar]

It appears to be a problem with tar. It doesn't create symlinks ever. Every tool that I've tried to install that uses tar with symlinks fails.

[Sparticuz]

More info here: microsoft/WSL#3

[allenv0]

Just sudo npm install -g npm@5.3.0