node failed to build on 10.10

[abcsds]

brew install node throws warning when making npm:
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR! /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0
make[1]: *** [node_modules/.bin/ronn] Error 3
make: *** [man/man3/npm-bin.3] Error 2

Warning: The post-install step did not complete successfully
You can try again using 'brew postinstall node'

After command brew postinstall node it throws the same npm building error message and points towards troubleshooting gitpage.
Following instructions there I've updated Xcode and CLT, and searched for open tickets on node and npm. I found nothing.

The problem: npm doesn't build. There are binaries, but when running it shows activity, but does nothing.
The gist-log is the following:
https://gist.github.com/abcsds/6082952c83a166ca0f06

[listenaddress]

I'm having the same problem today.

I was able to fix these:
make[1]: *** [node_modules/.bin/ronn] Error 3
make: *** [man/man3/npm-bin.3] Error 2
by uninstalling node and running rm -r /Users/abcsds/.npm/ before installing again.

but I'm still getting
==> make install
==> /usr/local/bin/npm install --global npm@latest --prefix /usr/local
--global
npm@latest
--prefix
/usr/local

Warning: The post-install step did not complete successfully
You can try again using 'brew postinstall node'

[DomT4]

Try murdering your Node install and then doing brew install -v node. Note: You will lose absolutely every module you've installed with npm. Don't do this if you're hoping to keep them.

[listenaddress]

Hmm I'm still getting this at the end
==> /usr/local/bin/npm install --global npm@latest --prefix /usr/local
Failed to execute: /usr/local/bin/npm
Warning: The post-install step did not complete successfully
You can try again using brew postinstall node

[abcsds]

I am actually doing a clean install.

[thomchop]

Removing node, npm, and all modules before doing a clean install with homebrew worked for me.
For some reason I did have to recreate the /usr/local/lib/dtrace directory.

I removed files in the following locations:
/usr/local/lib/node
/usr/local/include/node
/usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
/usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1
/usr/local/bin/npm
~/.npm (deleting this will erase your config)

[abcsds]

It works. I had formatted my hard drive to clean install Yosemite, but did copy the ~/.npm folder to my home folder. Erasing it solved the problem.

[DomT4]

Is everyone here successfully building now, or is anyone still having trouble with Node?

[MikeMcQuaid]

@DomT4 I'm wondering why NPM_CONFIG_USERCONFIG doesn't seem to be fixing this.

[rkz]

On Yosemite (upgraded from Mavericks), I was able to murder my node as @DomT4 suggested but I'm getting the following when running brew postinstall node:

scripts/doc-build.sh doc/api/npm-bin.md man/man3/npm-bin.3
node cli.js install ronn --no-global
bash: node: command not found
make[1]: *** [node_modules/.bin/ronn] Error 127
make: *** [man/man3/npm-bin.3] Error 2

However after running brew install node, I am able to run the node command. I don't get the reason for bash: node: command not found.

[MikeMcQuaid]

@rkz Try brew reinstall node

[rkz]

@MikeMcQuaid Same.

[DomT4]

If it wasn't for the sudo issue I'd suggest Homebrew give up on Node and suggest people use the upstream binary instead. Can everyone still having issues create a brew gist-logs node please?

[listenaddress]

I'm clean installing Mavericks, so I should be good.

[rkz]

Turns out I was able to finish the install by adding /usr/local/bin (where the node executable is located) to my .bash_profile. For some reason it was included in zsh's PATH but not bash's.

[markchagers]

I had the same problem and solved it by following @DomT4's suggestion. After that I reinstalled gulp, http-server and yeoman:
npm install -g gulp http-server yo
However this seems to have installed a whole lot of modules as well, npm list -g > npm_global.txt produces a 600+ line file. Is this normal?

[thomchop]

That command will print all the versions of packages that are installed, as well as their dependencies, in a tree-structure. That's probably why there's more modules listed than you're expecting.
If you want to list only the modules you directly installed, use npm ls -g --depth=0.
Usually I only want to see my immediate dependencies, so I added that flag (depth=0) to my .npmrc file.

[damnhandy]

I had the same issue but it seems that the core problem is that it failed when it was trying to create a symlink for dtrace:

The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
Could not symlink lib/dtrace/node.d
/usr/local/lib/dtrace is not writable.

You can try again using:
brew link node
==> make uninstall
uninstall

node cli.js rm npm -g -f
bash: node: command not found
make: *** [uninstall] Error 127 
Warning: The post-install step did not complete successfully

I ran brew link node and then brew postinstall node and it worked. Just to be sure, I completely uninstalled node using brew uninstall node and then reinstalled. On re-installation, I had zero issues. This makes me think that this some left over permission issues from my pre-Yosemite upgrade. Right now, node seems to be working fine with Homebrew.

[DomT4]

dtrace is one of those directories that crops up quite often as a little hellraiser. It can usually be fixed with sudo chown whoami /usr/local/lib/dtrace or if that doesn't work, you can just remove that directory safely with sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/dtrace and then post-install Node again. Glad you managed to resolve your issue relatively easily though 👍

[damnhandy]

I should also note that when I uninstalled node using brew uninstall node, it removed this directory anyway. The only thing present in that directory was node.d. If your goal is installing or reinstalling nodejs, it seems safe to wipe the directory.

[nickthedude]

DomT4's comment worked for me (running the shell script and then reinstalling through brew)

[DomT4]

@thomchop I missed your post above before, but thanks for the reminder about npm's love of trees. I've pushed a new commit to my script to ensure people aren't getting enormous readouts on that.

Glad the script is still useful. Node ❤️ root permissions when it installs through the .pkg, so any traces on a system of that tend to cause hell given Brew deliberately isn't run as root and can't override those.

[bdougie]

@DomT4 I am having this issue and use every solution provided here except your script. How does one go about running your script in the terminal?

[bdougie]

Nevermind, I got it:
sh terminatenode.sh in case anyone else has that quesiton

[DomT4]

@brianllamar Apologies, I did leave a hint on how to make the script executable on the page, but I didn't hint as to how to actually execute it. I'll push a fix for that clarification shortly.

As you discovered you can either do sh terminatenode.sh or if you're cd-ed into the same folder as the script you can do ./terminatenode.sh.

[cgfeel]

sudo chown -R `whoami` /usr/local/lib/node_modules
sudo chown -R `whoami` ~/.npm
brew postinstall node

[swells808]

No matter what I do I always get hung up at this step:

$ brew postinstall node
==> make uninstall
uninstall

node cli.js rm npm -g -f
bash: node: command not found
make: *** [uninstall] Error 127

[DomT4]

@swells808 Either kill Node entirely and try again, or do brew gist-logs node and post the link below.

[swells808]

Tried to kill it. Here is the link https://gist.github.com/5a34b780b4ffe077da11

[DomT4]

Try brew remove node && sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node/ && brew install -v node.

[swells808]

and again:

rmdir /usr/local/include
Error: The brew link step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
Could not symlink share/man/man1/node.1
Target /usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1
already exists. You may want to remove it:
rm /usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1

To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:
brew link --overwrite node

To list all files that would be deleted:
brew link --overwrite --dry-run node

Possible conflicting files are:
/usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1
/usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
==> make uninstall
node cli.js rm npm -g -f
bash: node: command not found
make: *** [uninstall] Error 127
Warning: The post-install step did not complete successfully
You can try again using brew postinstall node
==> Summary
🍺 /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.33_1: 2080 files, 28M

[DomT4]

Are you sure you tried the script? Those directories would be gone with the script. Try:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DomT4/scripts/master/OSX_Node_Removal/terminatenode.sh && chmod +x terminatenode.sh && ./terminatenode.sh

[jacknagel]

Is there a primary issue still being tracked here, or are people just posting random failures?

[DomT4]

Nope. It's Sgt. Pepper's Not-So-Lonely Random Node Failures Club Band. Can probably be closed, if so desired.