Installing gulp on vagrant guest using npm via bash

Question

Having a tough time getting this sorted. I'm using Ansible to provision a precise64 box with a bunch of stuff, including node:

- name: Node.js | Add the node.js PPA
  apt_repository: repo=ppa:chris-lea/node.js
  tags: nodejs

- name: Node.js | Install nodejs and npm
  apt: pkg=nodejs update_cache=yes
  tags: nodejs

Once the provisioning is complete, I have Vagrant run a bash script, to run some additional provisioning, including specific npm packages, like gulp:

#!/bin/bash

sudo -u vagrant -i -- npm install gulp -g --no-bin-links --prefix "/project";

It kinda looks like the bash script works:

==> project: gulp@3.8.10 /project/lib/node_modules/gulp
==> project: ├── pretty-hrtime@0.2.2
==> project: ├── interpret@0.3.10
==> project: ├── deprecated@0.0.1
==> project: ├── archy@1.0.0
==> project: ├── minimist@1.1.0
==> project: ├── tildify@1.0.0 (user-home@1.1.1)
==> project: ├── semver@4.2.0
==> project: ├── chalk@0.5.1 (escape-string-regexp@1.0.2, ansi-styles@1.1.0, supports-color@0.2.0, strip-ansi@0.3.0, has-ansi@0.1.0)
==> project: ├── v8flags@1.0.8
==> project: ├── orchestrator@0.3.7 (stream-consume@0.1.0, sequencify@0.0.7, end-of-stream@0.1.5)
==> project: ├── gulp-util@3.0.2 (beeper@1.0.0, array-differ@1.0.0, object-assign@2.0.0, array-uniq@1.0.2, lodash._reinterpolate@2.4.1, replace-ext@0.0.1, vinyl@0.4.6, through2@0.6.3, lodash.template@2.4.1, multipipe@0.1.2, dateformat@1.0.11)
==> project: ├── liftoff@0.13.6 (extend@1.3.0, flagged-respawn@0.3.1, resolve@1.0.0, findup-sync@0.1.3)
==> project: └── vinyl-fs@0.3.13 (graceful-fs@3.0.5, strip-bom@1.0.0, defaults@1.0.0, vinyl@0.4.6, mkdirp@0.5.0, through2@0.6.3, glob-stream@3.1.18, glob-watcher@0.0.6)

And vagrant seems to think gulp's there:

vagrant@project:/project$ npm -v gulp
1.4.28

Just not executable:

vagrant@project:/project$ gulp
No command 'gulp' found, did you mean:
 Command 'gslp' from package 'ghostscript' (main)
gulp: command not found

If I manually install gulp on the guest, then it works:

vagrant@project:/project $ sudo npm install gulp -g
...
vagrant@project:/project$ gulp
[21:05:29] Using gulpfile /project/gulpfile.js
[21:05:29] Starting 'default'...
[21:05:29] Finished 'default' after 40 μs

So, I'm thinking I'm missing a symlink or something? I tried this via bash:

ln -s /usr/lib/node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js /usr/bin/gulp;

But, same deal.

Ideas?

Answer 1

another option is to use alias

alias gulp="node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js"

(this line can be added to ~/.bashrc)

the purpose of this is to call gulp for given project (as you may have several projects and each with its own gulp)

Answer 2

Your npm install -g command says your gulp is installed in this directory. /project/lib/node_modules/gulp

Try symlinking ln -s /project/lib/node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js /usr/bin/gulp

The /project dir is most likely not in your PATH.