netlify-cli recently failed to install on CI (docker)

[noraj]

Describe the bug

Installing fails on my gitlab CLI but wucess on my dev VM.

$ npm install netlify-cli -g
npm WARN deprecated urix@0.1.0: Please see https://github.com/lydell/urix#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated resolve-url@0.2.1: https://github.com/lydell/resolve-url#deprecated
npm WARN deprecated rollup-plugin-inject@3.0.2: This package has been deprecated and is no longer maintained. Please use @rollup/plugin-inject.
> yarn@1.22.10 preinstall /usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/yarn
> :; (node ./preinstall.js > /dev/null 2>&1 || true)
/usr/local/bin/ntl -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/bin/run
/usr/local/bin/netlify -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/bin/run
> esbuild@0.8.43 postinstall /usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/esbuild
> node install.js
Trying to install "esbuild-linux-64" using npm
Failed to install "esbuild-linux-64" using npm: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/esbuild/esbuild-r63cli2pgpi'
Trying to download "https://registry.npmjs.org/esbuild-linux-64/-/esbuild-linux-64-0.8.43.tgz"
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/esbuild/install.js:217
      throw e;
      ^
Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/esbuild/bin/esbuild'
    at Object.openSync (fs.js:476:3)
    at Object.writeFileSync (fs.js:1467:35)
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/esbuild/install.js:66:8
    at Generator.next (<anonymous>)
    at fulfilled (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/esbuild/install.js:6:24)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:93:5) {
  errno: -13,
  syscall: 'open',
  code: 'EACCES',
  path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/esbuild/bin/esbuild'
}
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@~2.3.1 (node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/rollup/node_modules/fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@2.3.2: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: @netlify/traffic-mesh-agent-win32-x64@^0.27.10 (node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/@netlify/traffic-mesh-agent/node_modules/@netlify/traffic-mesh-agent-win32-x64):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for @netlify/traffic-mesh-agent-win32-x64@0.27.10: wanted {"os":"win32","arch":"x64"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: @netlify/traffic-mesh-agent-darwin-x64@^0.27.10 (node_modules/netlify-cli/node_modules/@netlify/traffic-mesh-agent/node_modules/@netlify/traffic-mesh-agent-darwin-x64):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for @netlify/traffic-mesh-agent-darwin-x64@0.27.10: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"x64"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
npm WARN @octokit/plugin-request-log@1.0.3 requires a peer of @octokit/core@>=3 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! esbuild@0.8.43 postinstall: `node install.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the esbuild@0.8.43 postinstall script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2021-02-10T19_57_41_262Z-debug.log

In the CI it fails on both nodejs 10.23.2 and 14.15.5. On my dev vm works with 12.16.2 and 14.15.5.

It started to happens today, I used the same command on my CI for years with nodejs 10.x.

The esbuild permission access error is weird, the difference I see is that on, my dev VM I install it as an user (with asdf but the CI (dockerized environment) seems to run as root.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install the last npmjs package globally npm install netlify-cli -g on docker image node:14

Configuration

N/A

npx envinfo --system --binaries --npmPackages netlify-cli --npmGlobalPackages netlify-cli

Expected behavior

Install correctly.

CLI Output

See above.

Additional context

N/A

[eduardoboucas]

Hi @noraj. This seems to be a common problem when installing certain packages as root.

Can you please try to install the CLI with npm install --unsafe-perm=true -g netlify-cli? You can read more about the additional flag here.

[linogaliana]

Hi @noraj. This seems to be a common problem when installing certain packages as root.

Can you please try to install the CLI with npm install --unsafe-perm=true -g netlify-cli? You can read more about the additional flag here.

@eduardoboucas Adding --unsafe-perm=true solved the problem in my case (error before and success after)

[eduardoboucas]

Thanks, @linogaliana! We're exploring different options to avoid requiring this flag, but at least this unblocks people in the meantime.

[noraj]

The workaround seems to work, until yesterday the unsafe flag was not required. So it must be due to 3.6, 3.7 or 3.7.1 release.

[eduardoboucas]

The workaround seems to work, until yesterday the unsafe flag was not required. So it must be due to 3.6, 3.7 or 3.7.1 release.

It is due to some changes we've introduced in the last version. We'll be updating this issue with any updates on this topic. Until then, if you must install the CLI under the root user, we recommend that you use the flag.

[tranlehaiquan]

Also, happen to me when I tried to upgrade new version.

Macos: Big sur 11.2

[eduardoboucas]

@noraj @tranlehaiquan @linogaliana if any of you has a chance to try this on npm 7 without the --unsafe-perms flag, can you please let us know if this issue persists?

Thanks! 🙌🏻

[noraj]

• ❌ Node.js 14.15.5, npm 6.14.11, netlify-cli 3.8.3
• ✅ Node.js 15.8.0, npm 7.5.1, netlify-cli 3.8.3

But it means I had to switch from node 14 LTS to node 15 short live version. I hoped it was possible to with npm 6 too.
Also the netlify installation file is considerably longer now, see my total pipeline execution time:

• npm 6, netlify-cli before the bug, stable between 4:15 and 4:30
• npm 6, netlify-cli with the bug and --unsafe-perm=true, 4:51
• npm 7, netlify-cli patched, 6:38

See default npm version for each nodejs release https://nodejs.org/en/download/releases/