npm config edit user or group - not working

[shaybc]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

when executing npm package executable on a policy restricted PC the user/group config does not take into effect,

i am on an enterprise windows PC, after installing npm-gui (also happens on nx.dev StoryBoard),
when i run a command that tries to launch a server (listen to a port), it execute it with the DefaultAccount, the output say: [as default]

the PC has a policy that one user cannot execute applications as another user,

so i tried setting the user (UID) or group (GID) so npm will use that user to execute the commands, but it does not effect the process

actual received output:

C:\Test>npm-gui
listening on:  localhost 13377
node:internal/errors:456
    ErrorCaptureStackTrace(err);
    ^

Error: spawn EPERM
    at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:415:11)
    at Object.spawn (node:child_process:609:9)
    at Object.open [as default] (C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm-gui\node_modules\open\index.js:204:34) {
  errno: -4048,
  code: 'EPERM',
  syscall: 'spawn'
}

Expected Behavior

setup UID to use when executing npm package executables
as stated at: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v6/using-npm/config#user

set:
npm config set user MYUsername

call:
npm-gui

expect server to launch properly and to see npm-gui UI
as shown here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm-gui

Steps To Reproduce

1. on a PC with policy that disallow running as another user (or where DefaultAccount is disabled)
2. install node 16.3.0
3. run: npm i -g npm-gui
4. run: npm config set user=MyUsername
5. run: npm-gui

in step 3 i also tried: npm config set group=MY_GID as stated here: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v6/using-npm/config#group

Environment

• OS: Windows 10
• Node: 16.3.0
• npm: 7.18.1

[wraithgar]

Those are the v6 docs you linked. The user config option is not present in npm v7. In order to run as a different user, npm must be ran as root and then scripts will be run with the effective uid and gid of the current working directory owner: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v7/using-npm/scripts#user

[shaybc]

Those are the v6 docs you linked. The user config option is not present in npm v7. In order to run as a different user, npm must be ran as root and then scripts will be run with the effective uid and gid of the current working directory owner: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v7/using-npm/scripts#user

wraithgar thanks for the correction and asnwer,
i am running on a windows system (so there instead of root i use Administrator), i have ran the cmd as Administrator, the folder i am using is owned by MyUser, and the package is installed to global (-g) and still when run it is not executed using MyUser