which node points to usr/bin/node, cd usr/bin/node doesn't exist

Question

I'm sorry if this is a duplicate: I've read several similar questions but haven't found a solution that explains this. Since I'm quite new to Linux (Elementary OS running on Ubuntu 12.04) I wanted to have a specific answer so I won't accidentally do something really stupid.

The last update on Node.js broke npm, and I don't know how to fix it. The easiest way for quick fixing seems to be just installing and reinstalling, so I learned how to do that. I'm using Chris Lea's ppa for Node.js.

Ran into some problems though. When running $ which node I get the folder reference /usr/bin/node, so I then ran $ cd /usr/bin/node, and got the output: bash: cd: /usr/bin/node: No such file or directory. So I have a reference to a non-existing folder, and I have no idea to uninstall before reinstalling.

I'm able to run node file.js but neither npm install package or sudo npm install package. When running with sudo (I know that this is stupid - but I had to try 'cus I was so frustrated) nothing gets installed on the system, it just lists the files from the package.

I pasted a bash script a while ago, which created and put my globals in my user folder, in a folder named .npm-packages. I'm so new to Linux though, I have no idea how to fix this. The shebangs from the bin folder in .npm-packages works globally.

So lost - if you can help me I'm more than thankful.

Thanks alot, Anton

Answer 1

This is what I did to get it working:

Step 1: Move ~/.npm to ~/.npm.bak

mv ~/.npm ~/.npm.bak

Step 2: Install a global npm package again, to recreate .npm I installed Yeoman - which will help me help you!

npm install -g yo

Step 3: Follow what Yeoman tells you and paste the echo command it gives you

[Yeoman Doctor] Uh oh, I found potential errors on your machine

// lots of text here
...

Or run this command
echo "export NODE_PATH=$NODE_PATH:/home/user/npm/lib/node_modules" >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

Answer 2

You can't "Change Directory" into a file..

Inspect the path with ls -l /path/to/something and you'll probably see its a file or symlink. If its a directory it will list the contents.

To list info on a directory try adding the d flag.. EG: ls -ld /directory/path

Hang in there, this is the hardest part of the learning curve :-)

Answer 3

node is an executable file, not a directory. You can't cd to it.

You could cd to /usr/bin/ which is the directory containing the node executable file.