npm 1.4.14 doesn't honour prefix configuration (breaks "user global" installing)

[thomastoye]

I ran into some trouble today after updating node and npm. Basically, npm wouldn't install packages globally to my prefix (~/.global_npm), it would try to install them to /usr/lib/:

The full npm debug log is here: https://gist.github.com/doublet/786fa01ed3adc20a3f9d

As a test, I downgraded to 1.4.10. It worked there:

I tested out several npm version, hopefully that will help you to it down:

npm -v	Prefix is honoured (npm install -g works as expected)
1.4.0	Yes
1.4.5	Yes
1.4.10	Yes
1.4.11	No
1.4.12	No
1.4.13	No
1.4.14	No

[ackalker]

I've run into the same issue, hope this gets fixed asap.
In the mean time, here are some workarounds (which perhaps may shed some light on what is going wrong):

To install a single package user-globally:

$ npm install -g --prefix=$(npm config get prefix) <package>

To 'downgrade' to a working npm (assuming that <prefix>/bin is on the $PATH:

$ npm install -g --prefix=$(npm config get prefix) npm@1.4.10
$ hash -r # if using Bash, to update its path cache
$ npm --version # Confirm correct version is now active
1.4.10

(Don't forget to $ npm uninstall -g npm; hash -r when a fixed npm is shipped with the next update of Node.js!)

[thomastoye]

Possibly related: this file was removed in 1.4.11
https://github.com/npm/npm/blob/v1.4.10/lib/utils/find-prefix.js

[maxleiko]

Same here 👍

Downgrading to 1.4.10 seems like the simplest way to go while there is no fix.

[ackalker]

Looking into @doublet 's comment, I've found that this happened at or around this commit: 1707fce
(not git bisect ed, but it is probably very close).

[othiym23]

#5378 is intended to address this, so keep an eye on it.

[thomastoye]

👍

[ilovett]

👍 had this issue with 1.4.14...

fixed by installing http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.28/node-v0.10.28.tar.gz instead of 0.10.29

[natsu90]

It still happen. npm 3.3.6, node 5.0.0

[Deleted user]

Same issue on npm 4.0.5, node v7.3.0