0.6.3: npm install fails on Windows, can't find Python

[jamesshore]

I recently upgraded gaze from 0.4.3 to 0.6.3 and now it won't install on Windows because I don't have Python installed. (Installing Python isn't an option in this case.) The error occurs when building the node-gyp module:

> gaze@0.6.3 install C:\projects\weewikipaint\node_modules\gaze
> node-gyp rebuild


C:\projects\weewikipaint\node_modules\gaze>node "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_mo
dules\npm\bin\node-gyp-bin\\..\..\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" rebuild

gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Can't find Python executable "python", you can set the PYT
HON env variable.
gyp ERR! stack     at failNoPython (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\nod
e_modules\node-gyp\lib\configure.js:101:14)
gyp ERR! stack     at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\node
-gyp\lib\configure.js:64:11
gyp ERR! stack     at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 6.1.7601
gyp ERR! command "node" "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\node_modu
les\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd C:\projects\weewikipaint\node_modules\gaze
gyp ERR! node -v v0.10.26
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.12.2
gyp ERR! not ok
npm ERR! gaze@0.6.3 install: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the gaze@0.6.3 install script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the gaze package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls gaze
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

The issue seems to have been introduced in 0.6.0. Version 0.5.1 installs fine on Windows.

[shama]

With the current version, python is required to build node.js native addons: https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp#installation But I am looking into packaging the build into the library to avoid requiring users to build. I recommend staying on 0.5.1 until you can install those requirements or I package the builds here.

[jamesshore]

Thanks for the quick response. I've also opened an issue on node-gyp requesting that they remove the Python requirement: nodejs/node-gyp#430

[shama]

@jamesshore They can't remove the python requirement. Python (along with other things depending on your environment) is needed to compile with google gyp.