[BUG] <EACCES permissions errors when installing packages, npm is trying to use /.npm as its cache directory, which typically requires root permission >

[kavana-14]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall mkdir
npm ERR! path /.npm
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR! sudo chown -R 1007390000:0 "/.npm"

npm ERR! Log files were not written due to an error writing to the directory: /.npm/_logs
npm ERR! You can rerun the command with --loglevel=verbose to see the logs in your terminal

Expected Behavior

The issue arises because npm is trying to use /.npm as its cache directory, which typically requires root permissions. I'm try to create a react app on openshift, but after deployment when I rsh into my container shell and execute the npm start command i'm getting the error /.npm EACCESS. How to solve it .
The npm cache directory is set to a location where the user has appropriate permissions, avoiding permission issues.

Steps To Reproduce

1. In this environment...
2. With this config...
3. Run '...'
4. See error...

Environment

• npm: 9.5.1
• Node.js: 18.16.0
• OS Name: ubuntu 22.04
• System Model Name: Windows 10
• npm config:

$ npm config ls
; node bin location = /usr/local/bin/node
; node version = v18.16.0
; npm local prefix = /home/node/app
; npm version = 9.5.1
; cwd = /home/node/app
; HOME = /
; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults

[milaninfy]

@kavana-14 npm will have appropriate access if it got installed correctly. If you want to change location of cache you can use --cache flag in your command to specify different location for caching. Checkout https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v10/using-npm/config#cache

also from error log you can try changing permission of that directory to fix.

npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR! sudo chown -R 1007390000:0 "/.npm"

[kavana-14]

@milaninfy I tried to fix the issue from the error logs, included that command inside the Dockerfile, but got the issue as below,

Step 11/14 : RUN chown -R 1007390000:0 "/.npm"
---> Running in 6dbe5b2a8315

chown: cannot access '/.npm': No such file or directory
The command '/bin/sh -c chown -R 1007390000:0 "/.npm"' returned a non-zero code: 1

I logged into the container shell and check the existence of /.npm directory

$ ls -l /.npm
ls: cannot access '/.npm': No such file or directory
$
$ ls -l ~/.npm
ls: cannot access '//.npm': No such file or directory

> oc rsh client-56975c6c4-x454j
$ npm config get cache
/.npm

I think /.npm reside inside the cache directory

[milaninfy]

@kavana-14 What happens when you set cache to different location does it work for you ?,
npm config set cache ./another/location or you can specify the cache in .npmrc.

[kavana-14]

@milaninfy, thank you, setting the cache to different location solved my issue, but the problem is with my browser. I can be able to expose the service and see the web page in my chrome but not possible in Internet Explorer.