Node.js failed to install global npm packages on windows (not path)

Question

So, I have a strange problem that I'm not even sure I can identify. I just installed the current version of Node.js (v.10.*) on my Windows 7 machine. I have tried to install a couple packages globally (gulp and yoeman), but I get errors when they are installing and in my C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules directory, many of the package files are missing. Obviously, when I try to run the command globally, it fails because there IS NO command. It was never created.

Some other globally installed packages work fine (bower and grunt).

To make things really tricky. When I install gulp to a local folder (without the -g), the install works perfectly and I can use gulp by prepending the entire path before the command. Obviously, I could add that path to my system properties so the command would be global, but that wouldn't really fix my problem. Why does the install produce errors when installing globally, but not when installing locally?

As I watch the directory while gulp is installing locally, I see the files being created. Then the first error comes along and many of the files are deleted.

I believe the relevent parts of the log for my gulp install are:

6949 verbose lock lodash.noop@2.4.1 C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\7e62c2bb-lodash-noop-2-4-1.lock
6950 error Error: ENOENT, lstat 'C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\gulp\node_modules\vinyl-fs\node_modules\glob-stream\node_modules\glob2base\node_modules\lodash.findindex\node_modules\lodash.createcallback\node_modules\lodash._baseisequal\node_modules\lodash._releasearray\node_modules\lodash._arraypool'
6951 error If you need help, you may report this *entire* log,
6951 error including the npm and node versions, at:
6951 error     <http://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
6952 error System Windows_NT 6.1.7601
6953 error command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "install" "-g" "gulp"
6954 error cwd c:\wamp\www\phoenix\animus\gulp
6955 error node -v v0.10.28
6956 error npm -v 1.4.9
6957 error path C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\gulp\node_modules\vinyl-fs\node_modules\glob-stream\node_modules\glob2base\node_modules\lodash.findindex\node_modules\lodash.createcallback\node_modules\lodash._baseisequal\node_modules\lodash._releasearray\node_modules\lodash._arraypool
6958 error fstream_path C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\gulp\node_modules\vinyl-fs\node_modules\glob-stream\node_modules\glob2base\node_modules\lodash.findindex\node_modules\lodash.createcallback\node_modules\lodash._baseisequal\node_modules\lodash._releasearray\node_modules\lodash._arraypool
6959 error fstream_unc_path \\?\C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\gulp\node_modules\vinyl-fs\node_modules\glob-stream\node_modules\glob2base\node_modules\lodash.findindex\node_modules\lodash.createcallback\node_modules\lodash._baseisequal\node_modules\lodash._releasearray\node_modules\lodash._arraypool
6960 error fstream_type Directory
6961 error fstream_class DirWriter
6962 error code ENOENT
6963 error errno 34
6964 error fstream_stack C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\fstream\lib\writer.js:284:26
6964 error fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
6965 verbose exit [ 34, true ]

I have log files if that would help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Windows can only support 260 characters as Max Path Length. I hope nodejs developers will resolve the nesting module approach. To do a workaround I simply change the global npm modules path to c: from AppData to get some characters and it resolves the issue. I know that this hack just provide you few characters but it is working for me. To do so,

1. Open notepad in Administrator mode.
2. Go to location [nodejs installation directory]\node_modules\npm
3. Open file "npmrc" and change prefix=c:\npm
4. Save the file.