ERROR: Cordova CLI not found on your PATH.

[DouglasWebster]

What version of the CLI are you using? Output of ionic --version

3.0.0-rc.1

Short description of the problem:

$ ionic start ionic-test
should create the project but instead exits with
ERROR: Cordova CLI not found on your PATH. ...
I have cordova installed globally and have no problem creating a cordova project. However ionic refuses to create a project even though I have tried several versions of ionic from 4.3.1 through to the current version 3 beta.
All stop with an error message indicating that the Cordova CLI is not on the path.

What behavior are you expecting?

ionic start ionic-test should create.

Post the output of ionic info below please
global packages:

@ionic/cli-utils : 1.0.0-rc.1
Ionic CLI        : 3.0.0-rc.1

System:

Node       : v6.10.3
OS         : Linux 4.8
Xcode      : not installed
ios-deploy : not installed
ios-sim    : not installed

Other information:
I suspect this may be related to the method I used for installing global npm packages. I have them installed under my home folder so that I do not have to sudo every time I make changes to the global packages (as recommended on the npm fixing permissions page).

If I add a specific path reference to the cordova bin directory by including

#set path to cordova bin ###temp until ionic can find cordova
export PATH=${PATH}:~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/cordova/bin

in my .bashrc then the reload the system variables and again run
$ ionic start ionic-test
the project is created and ionic info gives the following

global packages:

    @ionic/cli-utils : 1.0.0-rc.1
    Cordova CLI      : 7.0.0 
    Ionic CLI        : 3.0.0-rc.1

local packages:

    @ionic/app-scripts              : 1.3.6
    @ionic/cli-plugin-cordova       : 1.0.0-rc.1
    @ionic/cli-plugin-ionic-angular : 1.0.0-rc.1
    Ionic Framework                 : ionic-angular 3.1.1

System:

    Node       : v6.10.3
    OS         : Linux 4.8
    Xcode      : not installed
    ios-deploy : not installed
    ios-sim    : not installed

My full PATH variable includes the path ~/.npm-global/bin as per the npm fixing permisions instructions.

I would have thought that having the path variable ~/.npm-global/bin set should have been sufficient for ionic to find the cordova files it requires without having to set a specific path to the cordova bin directory.

Best regards
Douglas

[imhoffd]

So you did source ~/.bashrc after adding export PATH=${PATH}:~/.npm-global/bin to it?

Can you do ls -al ~/.npm-global/bin ?

Also can you do which cordova ?

[DouglasWebster]

I have been using my home directory for the global npm packages for the last few years and export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH is run from ~/.profile (as recommended on the npm fixing permissions page). This file was last updated 2017-01-21 when I did a fresh re-installation of Linux Mint onto a new disk.
The only alteration I made yesterday which enabledionic start to run was to add export PATH=${PATH}:~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/cordova/bin to .bashrc then do source ~/.bashrc.

ls -al ~/.npm-global/bin gives:

total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 douglas douglas 4096 May  4 19:18 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 douglas douglas 4096 May  1 11:06 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   63 May  1 11:02 angular-cli-ghpages -> ../lib/node_modules/angular-cli-ghpages/bin/angular-cli-ghpages
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   39 May  4 19:18 cordova -> ../lib/node_modules/cordova/bin/cordova
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   56 May  1 11:02 express -> ../lib/node_modules/express-generator/bin/express-cli.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   40 May  1 11:06 gulp -> ../lib/node_modules/gulp-cli/bin/gulp.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   47 May  1 11:06 hs -> ../lib/node_modules/http-server/bin/http-server
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   47 May  1 11:06 http-server -> ../lib/node_modules/http-server/bin/http-server
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   35 May  3 17:02 ionic -> ../lib/node_modules/ionic/bin/ionic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   45 May  1 11:06 ncu -> ../lib/node_modules/npm-check-updates/bin/ncu
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   39 May  1 11:02 ng -> ../lib/node_modules/@angular/cli/bin/ng
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   63 May  1 11:02 ngh -> ../lib/node_modules/angular-cli-ghpages/bin/angular-cli-ghpages
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   38 May  1 10:54 npm -> ../lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   59 May  1 11:06 npm-check-updates -> ../lib/node_modules/npm-check-updates/bin/npm-check-updates
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   53 May  1 11:09 pouchdb-server -> ../lib/node_modules/pouchdb-server/bin/pouchdb-server
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   42 May  1 11:09 swagger -> ../lib/node_modules/swagger/bin/swagger.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   50 May  1 11:09 swagger-project -> ../lib/node_modules/swagger/bin/swagger-project.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   38 May  1 11:09 tsc -> ../lib/node_modules/typescript/bin/tsc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   37 May  1 11:09 tslint -> ../lib/node_modules/tslint/bin/tslint
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   39 May  1 11:09 ts-node -> ../lib/node_modules/ts-node/dist/bin.js
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   43 May  1 11:09 tsserver -> ../lib/node_modules/typescript/bin/tsserver
lrwxrwxrwx 1 douglas douglas   39 May  1 11:09 typings -> ../lib/node_modules/typings/dist/bin.js

which cordova gives
/home/douglas/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/cordova/bin/cordova

Thank you for your attention
Douglas

[imhoffd]

@DouglasWebster Can you run this quick script and print its output:

const child_process = require('child_process');

const p = child_process.spawn('cordova', ['--version'], { stdio: 'inherit' });

p.on('error', (err) => {
  console.error(err);
});

p.on('close', (code) => {
  console.log('exit code:', code);
});

[DouglasWebster]

I think the problem is with initiating the ~/.npm-global/bin variable in ~/.profile.
Running your script with export PATH=${PATH}:~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/cordova/bin commented out gives:

{ Error: spawn cordova ENOENT
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:193:32)
    at onErrorNT (internal/child_process.js:367:16)
    at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:80:11)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:104:9)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:606:11)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:390:7)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:150:9)
    at bootstrap_node.js:505:3
  code: 'ENOENT',
  errno: 'ENOENT',
  syscall: 'spawn cordova',
  path: 'cordova',
  spawnargs: [ '--version' ] }
exit code: -2

Also, changing your script to get ionic version gives

{ Error: spawn ionic ENOENT
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:193:32)
    at onErrorNT (internal/child_process.js:367:16)
    at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:80:11)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:104:9)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:606:11)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:390:7)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:150:9)
    at bootstrap_node.js:505:3
  code: 'ENOENT',
  errno: 'ENOENT',
  syscall: 'spawn ionic',
  path: 'ionic',
  spawnargs: [ '--version' ] }
exit code: -2

It seems that spawn is not loading the export PATH from ~/.profile' only export PATH from ~/.bashrc. I moved the export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin from ~/.profile into ~/.bashrc reran the script. It now gives

7.0.0
exit code: 0

Also start ionic is now running correctly.

It seems that I may need to get a deeper understanding of the bash shell and it's interaction with the various scripts :(

Thank you for your assistance in helping me resolve this problem.

[imhoffd]

@DouglasWebster Glad you got it working. I still think if ~/.profile was being sourced properly in your active terminal session (where ~/.npm-global/bin was found in your path) that it should work fine.

If you find out more, please update the issue.

Thanks!

[tembra]

Hello @dwieeb , the same issue happens to me.

But I'm using Mac OS X 10.11.6 that does not source a ~/.bashrc file.

I also moved recently (days ago) the npm to ~/.npm-global to fix the permissions. I already added to the PATH on my ~/.bash_profile and also source it and even restart.

The only way I can solved this issue is making a symbolic link to /usr/local/bin for both npm and cordova:

ln -s ~/.npm-global/bin/npm /usr/local/bin/npm
ln -s ~/.npm-global/bin/cordova /usr/local/bin/cordova

BTW, running your script above using Node v6.10.2 returns this before I create the symbolic link:

{ Error: spawn cordova ENOENT
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:193:32)
    at onErrorNT (internal/child_process.js:367:16)
    at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:80:11)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:104:9)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:606:11)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:393:7)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:150:9)
    at bootstrap_node.js:508:3
  code: 'ENOENT',
  errno: 'ENOENT',
  syscall: 'spawn cordova',
  path: 'cordova',
  spawnargs: [ '--version' ] }
exit code: -2

And this after I create the symbolic link:

7.0.0
exit code: 0

So it seems to be a child_process issue? Or maybe there is an issue on ionic-cli that launches a new terminal with a custom PATH or did not source the ~/.bash_profile?

[imhoffd]

@tembra Try printing PATH within the node script:

const child_process = require('child_process');

const p = child_process.spawn('cordova', ['--version'], { stdio: 'inherit' });

console.log('PATH:', process.env.PATH); // see PATH within node

p.on('error', (err) => {
  console.error(err);
});

p.on('close', (code) => {
  console.log('exit code:', code);
});

[tembra]

I've got this:

PATH: ~/.npm-global/bin:/usr/local/php5/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/thierestembra/MobileApp/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools:/Users/thierestembra/MobileApp/android-sdk-macosx/tools:/Users/thierestembra/.composer/vendor/bin:/opt/gradle/gradle-3.5/bin

So I realized that I added npm to path using ~ to reference the home directory while all other paths does not. Then I removed my previous symbolic links to solve this issue and changed the npm PATH to the full path replacing ~ with /Users/thierestembra/ and voilà it works.

It seems that child_process can not handle the ~ character.

Now that I noticed this, I just replace all the /Users/thierestembra in my .bash_profile with $HOME to be more readable, and it also works, of course :)

[imhoffd]

Ohhh. Yeah. ~ is a special path character that only bash understands. Node doesn't resolve it. This has tripped me up a few times.

[tembra]

Thanks for your help. I hope that these messages can help someone :)

[DouglasWebster]

The follow on to my original message has been very informative - thank you. Given the way bash and node treat ~ Iv'e moved the ~/.npm-global/bin back into ~/.profile and tried some experiments.

• Running the above script gives PATH:~/.npm-global/bin ... and the script returns an error.
• Doing a source ~/.profile and then running the script has the result of PATH having duplicate entries but this time one of the entries has ~/.npm-global/bin whilst the second version is home/*user*/.npm-global/bin and the script returns without error and lists the version of cordova
• I changed the entry in ~/.profile from ~/.npm-global/bin to $HOME/.npm-global/bin then logged out and back in (to ensure a clean PATH). Running the script now gives the correct PATH:home/*user*/.npm-global/bin entry and the script returns without error and the correct version of cordova is shown.
• Having ~/.npm-global/bin in ~/.bashrc instead of ~/.profile works OK as well with the script returning without error.

It seems that the ~ character is not resolved consistently whilst the use of $HOME is. Looks like we may have to type 4 extra characters in future just to ensure node and bash don't trip us up.

[cozzbie]

Have the same issue when trying to update packages npm install --save-dev --save-exact @ionic/cli-plugin-cordova@latest

Frustrated much.

[imhoffd]

@cozzbie Can you help me out so I can help you? Post the output of running ionic info. Run this script and post the output. Do you have any similar issues as in the comments above? Did you follow the instructions in the error after trying to npm install the Cordova CLI plugin?