running npm install on a project while having sublime open: ERR syscall rename

[ztrange]

• A brief description
  I just started using sublime inside bash, running it with VcXsrv because I moved all my workspace to ~/sites since it performs better. Today, I tried running npm install (something that I was sure worked fine) but got: npm ERR! syscall rename. I saw Unable to install acorn npm package (inability to symlink on mounted drives) #3 and npm package fails to install "npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied" #14 and tried the suggested solution npm config set unsafe-perm true but I still got the same error. I event tried running npm install from root (sudo su) but got the same error.
  I remembered that the recent changes to my environment were: moving my workspace to WSL exclusive fs ~/sites/... and started using linux sublime. So, I tried closing sublime and it worked. I tried several times and consistently was able to reproduce the error by having sublime running.

• Expected results
  npm install works while sublime is running

• Actual results (with terminal output if applicable)

npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@^1.0.0 (node_modules/chokidar/node_modules/fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@1.0.15: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
npm WARN myproject-clients@1.0.0 No description
npm WARN myproject-clients@1.0.0 No repository field.
npm ERR! Linux 3.4.0+
npm ERR! argv "/home/ztrange/.nvm/versions/node/v6.9.1/bin/node" "/home/ztrange/.nvm/versions/node/v6.9.1/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v6.9.1
npm ERR! npm  v3.10.9
npm ERR! path /home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/.staging/any-promise-47c55b56
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR! syscall rename

npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied, rename '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/.staging/any-promise-47c55b56' -> '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/any-promise'
npm ERR!     at destStatted (/home/ztrange/.nvm/versions/node/v6.9.1/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/install/action/finalize.js:25:7)
npm ERR!     at /home/ztrange/.nvm/versions/node/v6.9.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/graceful-fs/polyfills.js:264:29
npm ERR!     at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:123:15)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied, rename '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/.staging/any-promise-47c55b56' -> '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/any-promise'
npm ERR!     at Error (native)
npm ERR!  { Error: EACCES: permission denied, rename '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/.staging/any-promise-47c55b56' -> '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/any-promise'
npm ERR!     at destStatted (/home/ztrange/.nvm/versions/node/v6.9.1/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/install/action/finalize.js:25:7)
npm ERR!     at /home/ztrange/.nvm/versions/node/v6.9.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/graceful-fs/polyfills.js:264:29
npm ERR!     at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:123:15)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied, rename '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/.staging/any-promise-47c55b56' -> '/home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/node_modules/any-promise'
npm ERR!     at Error (native) parent: 'myproject-clients' }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /home/ztrange/sites/myproject-clients/npm-debug.log

• Your Windows build number
  14965

• Steps / All commands required to reproduce the error from a brand new installation

Install nvm and node:

$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.32.1/install.sh | bash
$ nvm install 6

Install sublime

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/sublime-text-3
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install sublime-text-installer

Install enough for gtk2 to run with VcXsrv

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libfontconfig1 libxrender1 libx11-6 libglib2.0-0  libxft2 libfreetype6 libc6 zlib1g libpng12-0 libstdc++6-4.8-dbg-arm64-cross libgcc1

Reproduce error

$ cd ~/sites/myproject-clients
$ subl
$ npm install

• Required packages and commands to install
  nvm
  node6
  sublime6
  some gtk2 stuff

[acshi]

I have just encountered this exact same issue, but not with sublime. The offending program in my case seemed to be receiving a lot of inotify events while npm was running, so it is possible that the underlying issue is inotify listeners on the same files.

[benhillis]

Closing out issues, please repoen if you continue to have issues on newer versions of Windows.

[therealkenc]

This was dupe #2097, #2836, #1956, #966, etc etc which are all #1529