“Error: Could not locate the bindings file”

[migurski]

I’m taking the API for a spin on Ubuntu 16.04. After installing all dependencies with npm install, I find that npm test works but npm start fails. Error output is below; Node is at 4.2.6 and NPM is at 3.5.2 on Ubuntu 16.04.

> pelias-api@2.2.0 start /tmp/api
> node index.js

usage: cannot find pre-compiled binary for: linux/x64/v4.2.6
usage: failed loading provider `linux`
/tmp/api/node_modules/bindings/bindings.js:91
  throw err
  ^

Error: Could not locate the bindings file. Tried:
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/build/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/build/Debug/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/build/Release/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/out/Debug/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/Debug/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/out/Release/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/Release/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/build/default/memwatch.node
 → /tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/compiled/4.2.6/linux/x64/memwatch.node
    at bindings (/tmp/api/node_modules/bindings/bindings.js:88:9)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/tmp/api/node_modules/memwatch-next/include.js:2:28)
    at Module._compile (module.js:410:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:417:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:344:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:301:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:354:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:12:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/tmp/api/node_modules/cluster2/lib/process.js:30:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:410:26)

npm ERR! Linux 4.4.0-21-generic
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "start"
npm ERR! node v4.2.6
npm ERR! npm  v3.5.2
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! pelias-api@2.2.0 start: `node index.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the pelias-api@2.2.0 start script 'node index.js'.
npm ERR! Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm installed.
npm ERR! If you do, this is most likely a problem with the pelias-api package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node index.js
npm ERR! You can get information on how to open an issue for this project with:
npm ERR!     npm bugs pelias-api
npm ERR! Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls pelias-api
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /tmp/api/npm-debug.log

[orangejulius]

Hmm. I've never seen this error before. Even google isn't particularly helpful. If you have a chance, can you try a similar process on Ubuntu 15? If not I'll try to test things out on an Ubuntu 16 VM.

[migurski]

On Ubuntu 15.10, the versions are Node 0.10.25 and NPM 1.4.21. Crazy to try with such early versions of each?

[orangejulius]

Nope. Everyone in the Node world wants to rid themselves of 0.10, but in fact it's Ubuntu that is really holding people back, so most projects still support 0.10

[migurski]

Interesting. I saw a bunch of this go by:

npm WARN … wanted: {"node":">=0.10.40"} (current: {"node":"0.10.25","npm":"1.4.21"})

…but both npm test and npm start appear to work! So that’s nice, but doesn't exactly answer the question of how make this go on a long-term support edition of Ubuntu.

🕝

Of course, now that I’m trying it all again on 16.04, npm start works just fine. 😐

[orangejulius]

Those particular warnings are ok. In fact most NPM warnings are ok, although you can feel free to report them and we'll try to fix them. Warnings exist for a reason after all.

If it works, then that's great. I'll test it out in the future on a VM (or possibly when I upgrade my machine to ubuntu 16), and as more issues arise we'll tackle them.

[migurski]

Thanks. I’m going to close this since it’s apparently fine now.

[tigerlily-he]

This error can come up if Libpostal was installed after you did npm install for the API. The solution is to delete and reinstall node modules for the API: rm -rf node_modules && npm install.