npm install doesn't work due to unavailable version

Question

I've tried to install this wordpress template, which relies on some node modules for a gulp file, on a Windows PC.

The output of npm install is the following:

$ npm install
npm WARN package.json gulp-wordpress-template@0.0.1 No repository field.
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-load-plugins
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-autoprefixer
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/browser-sync
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-autoprefixer
npm ERR! Error: No compatible version found: gulp-autoprefixer@'^1.0.1'
npm ERR! Valid install targets:
npm ERR! ["0.0.1","0.0.2","0.0.3","0.0.4","0.0.5","0.0.6","0.0.7","0.0.8","0.0.9
","0.0.10","1.0.0","1.0.1","2.0.0","2.1.0"]
npm ERR!     at installTargetsError (c:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\li
b\cache.js:719:10)
npm ERR!     at c:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\lib\cache.js:638:10
npm ERR!     at saved (c:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm
-registry-client\lib\get.js:142:7)
npm ERR!     at c:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\graceful-f
s\polyfills.js:133:7
npm ERR!     at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <npm-@googlegroups.com>

npm ERR! System Windows_NT 6.1.7601
npm ERR! command "c:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "c:\\Program Files\\nodej
s\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "install"
npm ERR! cwd c:\Users\USER\Desktop\wordpress-test
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.15
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.5
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-load-plugins
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-connect-php
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-shell
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-sass
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/browser-sync
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-sass
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-connect-php
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/gulp-shell
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     c:\Users\USER\Desktop\wordpress-test\npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

According to the error, gulp-autoprefixer isn't available in version ^1.0.1. What is strange, is that below it suggests that 1.0.1 is a valid version.

What's even more strange, is that I can flawlessly install the package on an OSX machine.

I thought node is cross platform – is there something I am missing?

Answer 1

You need a newer version of npm that supports the ^ character in the version fields. The easiest way is to this is to just upgrade node (the latest stable being v0.10.35 as of this writing).