Why sudo is bad for user cli tools and how to work around permission errors

[sindresorhus]

Need to have this guide so I can link to it from sudo-block.

Or as @kevva said it:

how to not sudo your way out

[Rowno]

If it helps, here's how I globally install NPM packages without using sudo.

export NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX='~/.npm-packages'
export PATH="$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX/bin:$PATH"
export MANPATH="$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX/share/man:$MANPATH"
export NODE_PATH="$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX/lib/node_modules:$NODE_PATH"

[sindresorhus]

Thanks.

npm config set prefix ~/npm and export PATH="~/npm/bin:$PATH" should be enough though.

[mathiasbynens]

This is also a common issue for the default Ruby on OS X. (By default, you need sudo to install gems.)

[Rowno]

Same with Ruby on Ubuntu.

[drewdrewthis]

Works great!

[lesterzone]

Why not install Nodejs with something like nvm ? It will install Node to ~/ and you no longer need to worry about global packages and their permissions.
I'm using it since I need to work with more than one Node version. It allows me to re-install packages from a previous version to a new one with a single command.