[BUG] npm error TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE: Unrecognized archive format

[Say-M]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

When ever I trying to install pm2 (some other packages also having this issue) globally using npm i -g pm2 it is showing me this error

npm warn tar TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE: Unrecognized archive format
npm warn deprecated inflight@1.0.6: This module is not supported, and leaks memory. Do not use it. Check out lru-cache if you want a good and tested way to coalesce async requests by a key value, which is much more comprehensive and powerful.
npm warn deprecated uuid@3.4.0: Please upgrade  to version 7 or higher.  Older versions may use Math.random() in certain circumstances, which is known to be problematic.  See https://v8.dev/blog/math-random for details.
npm warn deprecated glob@7.2.3: Glob versions prior to v9 are no longer supported
npm error code TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE
npm error TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE: Unrecognized archive format
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/omirror/.npm/_logs/2024-12-16T22_49_04_414Z-debug-0.log

I tried this with yarn, pnpm also. Same issues facing using yarn or pnpm.
I tried this with Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora Cloud 41
Besides I also tried this with node-lts 18, 20, 22 and with latest npm.

Expected Behavior

No response

Steps To Reproduce

1. In this environment...
2. With this config...
3. Run '...'
4. See error...

Environment

• npm: 10.9.0, 11.0.0
• Node.js: LTS 18, 20 & 22
• OS Name: Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora Cloud 41
• System Model Name: VPS
• npm config:

; node bin location = /home/omirror/.nvm/versions/node/v22.12.0/bin/node
; node version = v22.12.0
; npm local prefix = /home/omirror
; npm version = 10.9.0
; cwd = /home/omirror
; HOME = /home/omirror
; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults.

[prashantsagrawal]

I am also facing this issue, is there any resolution for this?

[sainak]

NPM registry seems to be returning 304 for packages

to reproduce it locally, you need to clear npm cache and try again

rm -rf node_modules/ && npm cache clean --force && npm i

as this is from the registry, it is happening on other package managers as well

It appears to be a region-specific issue, currently only reproducible in India

#3229 seems to be related

[gyanidude]

Does it mean, migrating from npm to yarn is the solution?

Any other mitigation?

Our production systems are down because of this.

[ankurk91]

Yes it is region specific issue.
Our ci/cd are failing on Mumbai region.

[pdalvi1893]

Any workaround on this? Even we are facing issue on our production systems build.

[ankurk91]

We have tried everything. Like Clearing the cache.
Restarted self host runner.
But no luck. Same error everytime.
Npm team should look into this asap

[foxy17]

Yup failing for me as well, in local. Surprisingly this works on the github actions CI/CD pipeline.

Any work around found for this ?

we tried

• Clearing cache
• Upgrading and downgrading the node versions
• Changing package manager to yarn.

Nothing working on the azure CI/CD, but works on the local.

[sarat1669]

@abhijith-tp-zora

This might be why yarn isn't working.

[sagrawal31]

Our production AWS beanstalk deployment is out of service because of this since 12 hours already-

2024/12/17 06:00:55.969865 [INFO] The dir .platform/hooks/prebuild/ does not exist
2024/12/17 06:00:55.969866 [INFO] Finished running scripts in /var/app/staging/.platform/hooks/prebuild
2024/12/17 06:00:55.969868 [INFO] Executing instruction: Install customer specified node.js version
2024/12/17 06:00:55.969972 [WARN] using default version of nodejs instead of installing specified version of nodejs
2024/12/17 06:00:55.969975 [INFO] Executing instruction: Use NPM to install dependencies
2024/12/17 06:00:55.969980 [INFO] use npm to install dependencies
2024/12/17 06:00:55.969996 [INFO] Getting npm verison
2024/12/17 06:00:55.970001 [INFO] Running command: npm --version
2024/12/17 06:00:57.161813 [INFO] 10.7.0

2024/12/17 06:00:57.161845 [INFO] Using npm v10
2024/12/17 06:00:57.161863 [INFO] Running command: /bin/su webapp -c npm --omit=dev install
2024/12/17 06:03:16.449305 [INFO] npm warn tar TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE: Unrecognized archive format
npm warn deprecated google-p12-pem@4.0.1: Package is no longer maintained
npm warn deprecated puppeteer@19.11.1: < 22.8.2 is no longer supported
npm warn deprecated google-p12-pem@3.1.4: Package is no longer maintained
npm warn deprecated google-p12-pem@3.1.4: Package is no longer maintained
npm notice
npm notice New major version of npm available! 10.7.0 -> 11.0.0
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v11.0.0
npm notice To update run: npm install -g npm@11.0.0
npm notice
npm error code TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE
npm error TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE: Unrecognized archive format

npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/webapp/.npm/_logs/2024-12-17T06_00_57_487Z-debug-0.log

2024/12/17 06:03:16.449359 [ERROR] An error occurred during execution of command [app-deploy] - [Use NPM to install dependencies]. Stop running the command. Error: Command /bin/su webapp -c npm --omit=dev install failed with error exit status 1. Stderr:npm warn tar TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE: Unrecognized archive format
npm warn deprecated google-p12-pem@4.0.1: Package is no longer maintained
npm warn deprecated puppeteer@19.11.1: < 22.8.2 is no longer supported
npm warn deprecated google-p12-pem@3.1.4: Package is no longer maintained
npm warn deprecated google-p12-pem@3.1.4: Package is no longer maintained
npm notice
npm notice New major version of npm available! 10.7.0 -> 11.0.0
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v11.0.0
npm notice To update run: npm install -g npm@11.0.0
npm notice
npm error code TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE
npm error TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE: Unrecognized archive format

npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/webapp/.npm/_logs/2024-12-17T06_00_57_487Z-debug-0.log

@abhijith-tp-zora

This might be why yarn isn't working.

That was it. We tried switching the registry with yarn config set registry https://registry.npmmirror.com/ and it worked for us in production.

[sagrawal31]

For npm users, setting npm config set registry https://registry.npmmirror.com/ worked locally. For production, we had to append registry=https://registry.npmmirror.com/ in the .npmrc.