gitbook-cli@2.3.1 fails to run gitbook init

[sargant]

# node -v
v8.1.4

# npm -v
5.0.3

# npm install -g gitbook-cli@2.3.1
# gitbook fetch
# gitbook --version
CLI version: 2.3.1
GitBook version: 3.2.2

# gitbook init
Error loading version latest: Error: Cannot find module 'extend'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:485:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:437:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:513:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/root/.gitbook/versions/3.2.2/lib/index.js:1:76)
    at Module._compile (module.js:569:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:503:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:466:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:458:3)

TypeError: Cannot read property 'commands' of null

[sargant]

gitbook-cli@2.3.1 fails for every environment I've tested:

node@8.1.4 npm@5.0.3 fails
node@6.11.1 npm@3.10.10 fails
node@4.8.4 npm@2.15.11 fails

gitbook-cli@2.3.0 works fine on all these platforms

[AaronO]

I think the issue is that gitbook-cli uses npm as a library to install different versions of gitbook. We upgraded fron npm@3.x.x to npm@5.x.x in the last release, so it's likely due to differences in NPM's behavior our approach no longer works.

Would need to dig into this.

GitbookIO/gitbook#1818

[kozi]

Got the same problem! npm@8.1.4 and npm@5.2.0 No luck with gitbook-cli@2.3.0 or gitbook-cli@2.3.1

[dtolb]

Same issue in travis, local, work etc...
From the thread over in the gitbook repo per @oblador:

cd ~/.gitbook/versions/3.2.2 && npm i

Should work.

[GuGuss]

Same issue here when deploying Platform.sh documentation.

I'm currently sticking the gitbook-cli version to 2.3.0 (see Pull Request here: platformsh/platformsh-docs#583)

[greatdreams]

@dtolb Your solution is OK for this problem. Thanks! In addition, I 've tried to uninstall gitbook-cli@2.3.1 and install gitbook-cli@2.3.0, the problem is solved too. The detail is:

$ node -v
v8.1.4
$ npm -v 
5.0.3
$ rm -rvf ~/.gitbook
$ npm install -g gitbook-cli@2.3.0

[dtolb]

@greatdreams I did the same thing for my automated builds https://github.com/Bandwidth/bandwidth.github.io/pull/58/files

[greatdreams]

@dtolb I think that I've found it. it's npmi@2.0.1 which makes the bug. I've tried to use npmi@1.0.1 in gitbook-cli@2.3.1 and it works.

I've use two environments to test it.

1. npm@5.0.3, node@8.1.4
2. npm@3.10.8, node 6.9.1

We can explore different behavior of npmi from 1.0.1 to 2.0.2, and test it.

Details of test steps:

$ node -v
v8.1.4
$ npm -v 
5.0.3
$ rm -rvf ~/.gitbook
$ npm install -g gitbook-cli@2.3.1

delete node_modules of gitbook-cli
change npmi@2.0.1 to npmi@1.0.1 in package.json of gitbook-cli
in gitbook-cli installation directory, and run npm install

Now,

$ gitbook fetch
$ gitbook -V
CLI version: 2.3.1
GitBook version: 3.2.2
$ gitbook init
warn: no summary file in this book 
info: create README.md 
info: create SUMMARY.md 
info: initialization is finished 

It works!

[gabm]

I was able to reproduce with several node versions from 8 through 6... its clearly a problem in gitbook-cli