Command not found when executing node.js n package on sudo

Question

I'm trying to update my version of node to the latest stable.

Using this resource I was able to:

sudo npm install n -g

But when I try

sudo npm n stable

I get:

sudo: n: command not found

If I run n stable, the command is present:

n stable
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied

     install : node-v0.12.2
       mkdir : /usr/local/n/versions/node/0.12.2
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied

  Error: sudo required

Nice idea, but when I do that it returns me 'n: command not found', even though I've dropped the 'sudo' — JonRed, Apr 13 '15 at 08:15
I can't reproduce your problem, sudo npm install n -g will install n globally, because it has the -g parameter (at least on my computer) — 0x2b3bfa0, Apr 13 '15 at 08:46
ls: cannot access /usr/local/bin/n: No such file or directory — JonRed, Apr 13 '15 at 09:11
I've posted an answer. English isn't my mother tongue, if you encoutered any typo, please edit and fix. Now you can run again sudo visudo and revert the changes made to secure_path variable. Hope it helps. — 0x2b3bfa0, Apr 14 '15 at 19:18

score 45 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

45

I have found solution which worked for me:

sudo -E env "PATH=$PATH" n stable

Found it here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29400598/861615

edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

Community

1

answered Jul 06 '15 at 15:00

Luckylooke

551

1

env: n: No such file or directory – user3311522 Jul 15 '16 at 19:10
3

@user3311522 did you use: sudo npm install n -g before sudo -E env "PATH=$PATH" n stable ?? – Luckylooke Jul 17 '16 at 19:13
life saver! Thanks!! – n13 Mar 14 '22 at 12:03

0x2b3bfa0 · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-14T19:35:54.087

8

Surprisingly, your npm installation has the global prefix in a folder called npm on your home directory, this means that any package installed with the -g flag will install on this folder.

You can change this folder to any folder that is on the sudo safe path following these steps:

Graphical way:

Open a File Manager (a.k.a Nautilus).
Navigate to your home folder.
Press Ctrl+H to show hidden files.
Open a file called .npmrc with your favorite text editor.
Find a line on that file with this content:
```
prefix=/home/<your_username>/npm
```
Replace /home/<your_username>/npm by a safe path (such as /usr/local/bin).
Once replaced it will look like this:
```
prefix=/usr/local/bin
```
Save the file.
Run again sudo npm install n -g

Terminal way:

Run this command:

sed -i.bak "s%^prefix=.*$%prefix=/usr/local/bin%" ~/.npmrc

edited Apr 14 '15 at 19:35

answered Apr 14 '15 at 19:12

0x2b3bfa0

9,150
7
38
55

I think this nailed it! It also helped me just now when I updated my npm version, but wouldn' t recognise it. So, accepted, and thank you! – JonRed Apr 19 '15 at 19:19
Didnt help, still same isssue :/ – Luckylooke Jul 06 '15 at 14:53
This helped me! I didn't have ~/.npmrc file, so I added it and now it works fine – Kirill Husiatyn Sep 06 '16 at 12:10
3

Beware: this will undo Option 2 of fixing NPM permissions – Edson Horacio Junior Jan 10 '17 at 21:55

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 27 '19 at 09:14

This mean you don't have N installed in you system, N is an npm-based node version manager. You can install it by installing first some version of node and then running

sudo npm install -g n

now you can install the version on node using n command

sudo n stable

The above will install the latest stable verion

sudo n lates

this will install the lates version

you can also install the specific version by specifying the version as below

sudo n  10.16.0

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 05 '17 at 19:52

5

I know this is an Ubuntu forum, but I'm sure this will help someone with the same problem on the RHEL flavours who Googled to here like I did. Perhaps it also works in Ubuntu.

This is the approach:

ln -s /usr/local/bin/n /usr/bin/n

answered Aug 05 '17 at 19:52

poshest

151

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 29 '19 at 22:44

To avoid messing up with the .npm-global folder as noted by @Edson Horacio Junior, and based on @pohest's answer, here is how I fixed it:

sudo ln -s /home/<username>/.npm-global/bin/n /usr/local/bin/n
sudo n --version # test it

As a note, this probably will not work if you haven't followed npm's steps for changing the default global directory.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 04 '19 at 10:12

I found a solution that worked for me. Use nvm package to download latest node.

Install nvm using below command

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash

Create an environment variable to use nvm

export NVM_DIR="${XDG_CONFIG_HOME/:-$HOME/.}nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

Try nvm -v if it cannot see nvm installed, run the script below

command -v nvm

To install node run command below

nvm install node

After restarting the terminal, try to check the version of node, it should be updated

node -v

More info here: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 11 '20 at 22:07

0

None of the answers above worked for me. This however this did:

sudo /usr/local/bin/bin/n stable

answered Feb 11 '20 at 22:07

Matt

101
1

score -1 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 01 '19 at 07:53

I encountered the same problem, this is how you can solve it:

Get npm config prefix

npm config get prefix 
// get -> ${myhome}/.npm-global

Add the following lines in .zshrc

# Specify `n` to put the version of `node` in the `.n` directory.
export N_PREFIX=${myhome}/.npm-global/.n

# Make `nman` command work
export PATH=${myhome}/.npm-global/bin:$PATH

# Add this line to use `node -v` command
export PATH=${myhome}/.npm-global/.n/bin:$PATH

Reference: GitHub - tj/n: Node version management

^{Editor's note: This answer was originally written in Chinese and has been translated and edited using online tools. To see the original answer, refer Revision #1}

Command not found when executing node.js n package on sudo

8 Answers8