Syntax error "(" unexpected

[SturmB]

I updated npm to v7.6.0 today and now gitmoji-changelog is consistently giving me an error:

$ npx gitmoji-changelog
/home/sturm/.npm/_npx/989ebc59bfc33b01/node_modules/.bin/gitmoji-changelog: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

Before this, the first time I tried to run it after upgrade npm, it asked to be installed again for some reason, then gave me several warnings:

$ npx gitmoji-changelog
Need to install the following packages:
  gitmoji-changelog
Ok to proceed? (y) y
npm WARN deprecated har-validator@5.1.5: this library is no longer supported
npm WARN deprecated request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
npm WARN deprecated core-js@2.6.12: core-js@<3 is no longer maintained and not recommended for usage due to the number of issues. Please, upgrade your dependencies to the actual version of core-js@3.
/home/sturm/.npm/_npx/989ebc59bfc33b01/node_modules/.bin/gitmoji-changelog: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

I can confirm that this is specific to npm 7.6+ (possibly all of 7+). Downgrading back to my previous version, npm@6.14.9, fixes the issue for now; no warnings and no syntax errors.

[Tomas2D]

I have got the same problem 👍

[frinyvonnick]

Hi @SturmB 👋

Thank you for opening this issue 🙏 I don't have npm 7.6 on my current computer to give it a try but I'll check it as soon as possible. Can you also share your node version, please?

[Tomas2D]

I am getting this issue with the following versions:
Node: v16.6.0
NPM: 7.19.1

[SturmB]

So, this appears to be a bit spotty when it comes to different node/npm versions. Some of them work fine while others throw that 'Syntax error: "(" unexpected' message. For example:

[✔] node 14.17.4 / npm 6.14.14 (latest LTS release)
[❌] node 15.11.0 / npm 7.6.0 (latest during my original post)
[✔] node 16.2.0 / npm 7.13.0
[❌] node 16.6.1 / npm 7.20.3 (latest as of this writing)

[SerenModz21]

I also have a syntax error, but I don't think its the same one, I'm using node v16.6.1 with npm v7.21.0

[0x1026]

So, this appears to be a bit spotty when it comes to different node/npm versions. Some of them work fine while others throw that 'Syntax error: "(" unexpected' message. For example:

[✔] node 14.17.4 / npm 6.14.14 (latest LTS release)
[❌] node 15.11.0 / npm 7.6.0 (latest during my original post)
[✔] node 16.2.0 / npm 7.13.0
[❌] node 16.6.1 / npm 7.20.3 (latest as of this writing)

I just install node 16.2.0 / npm 7.13.0 and the error still persists

[frinyvonnick]

If someone is interested in investigating why it happens it could be really helpful🙏

[0x1026]

My question is why we use this:

gitmoji-changelog/packages/gitmoji-changelog-cli/package.json

Lines 20 to 22 in 0522b87

	"bin": {
	"gitmoji-changelog": "./src/index.js"
	},

Finished investigating, and came to the conclusion that it must be installed globally (npm i -g gitmoji-changelog) and requires an additional package called xsel, which can be installed with apt install xsel.

By this way, I'm getting another error:

[frinyvonnick]

We use bin because this the way to declare a cli. Here is the documentation https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/configuring-npm/package-json#bin

[jpolo]

It seems the shebang #!/usr/bin/env node at the beginning of the bin file could solve the problem...

[Tomas2D]

ping @frinyvonnick, I think that proposed solution from @jpolo is sufficient.

[sarangnx]

Still facing this issue.

node: v18.17.1
npm: v9.6.7
gitmoji-changelog: v2.3.0

[petrKavulok]

Was getting the same issue after updating node to v20.7.0, npm i -g gitmoji-changelog solved it for me.