Error: EPERM, chown '/[WORKING DIR]/node_modules/[PACKAGE NAME]/package.json'

[giacecco]

This is an old issue that likely was never solved, e.g. in #7563 or #6905, usually addressed by the very kind @smikes .

I need to use node 0.12.x and its latest associated npm to be as close as possible to a deployment environment I can't control (Gandi.net's basic hosting). To be able to use an old node, I test my code in a clean Docker container with the latest Debian and node 0.12.x from nodesource.

The installation of npm packages however always fails with something that looks like the console output below. Remember that all of this runs as root.

root@3adc90053544:/opt# npm install
npm WARN package.json dicoim-main-website@0.0.1 No README data
npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /root/.npm/express/4.13.4/package.tgz
npm ERR! Linux 4.1.18-boot2docker
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v0.12.10
npm ERR! npm  v2.14.9
npm ERR! path /opt/node_modules/express/package.json
npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! errno -1

npm ERR! Error: EPERM, chown '/opt/node_modules/express/package.json'
npm ERR!     at Error (native)
npm ERR!  { [Error: EPERM, chown '/opt/node_modules/express/package.json']
npm ERR!   errno: -1,
npm ERR!   code: 'EPERM',
npm ERR!   path: '/opt/node_modules/express/package.json',
npm ERR!   fstream_finish_call: 'chown',
npm ERR!   fstream_type: 'File',
npm ERR!   fstream_path: '/opt/node_modules/express/package.json',
npm ERR!   fstream_class: 'FileWriter',
npm ERR!   fstream_stack: 
npm ERR!    [ '/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/writer.js:306:21',
npm ERR!      '/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/graceful-fs/polyfills.js:210:7',
npm ERR!      'FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:95:15)' ] }
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!     /opt/npm-debug.log
root@3adc90053544:/opt

Because this is a Debian image prepared for Docker, I'm already running this as root and there's not even a sudo command available. npm cache clean achieves nothing. The cache is in /root/.npm. The full npm-debug.log is at https://gist.github.com/giacecco/8504d2e8501b59f610d9 .

I used node in Docker systems before without ever finding this issue, this is why I presume it is related to 0.x versions of node and was solved eventually in later versions. But is there a workaround for older versions?

Thanks.

[npm-robot]

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