cannot create modules that depend on nan

[andrewrk]

For example leveldown has binding.gyp with:

      , "include_dirs"  : [
            "<!(node -e \"require('nan')\")"
        ]

$ npm2deb create leveldown
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/npm2deb", line 7, in <module>
    sys.exit(main(sys.argv))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/npm2deb/scripts.py", line 132, in main
    args.func(args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/npm2deb/scripts.py", line 264, in create
    npm2deb.start()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/npm2deb/__init__.py", line 76, in start
    self.download()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/npm2deb/__init__.py", line 315, in download
    raise ValueError(exception)
ValueError: Error downloading package leveldown
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/leveldown/-/leveldown-0.10.2.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/leveldown/-/leveldown-0.10.2.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/nan
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/bindings
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/bindings
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/nan
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/nan/-/nan-0.6.0.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/nan/-/nan-0.6.0.tgz

> leveldown@0.10.2 install /home/admin/js/leveldown/node_modules/leveldown
> node-gyp rebuild

/bin/sh: 1: node: not found
gyp: Call to 'node -e "require('nan')"' returned exit status 127. while trying to load binding.gyp
gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: `gyp` failed with exit code: 1
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onCpExit (/usr/share/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:344:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:98:17)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:809:12)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
gyp ERR! command "nodejs" "/usr/bin/node-gyp" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /home/admin/js/leveldown/node_modules/leveldown
gyp ERR! node -v v0.10.29
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.12.2
gyp ERR! not ok 
npm WARN This failure might be due to the use of legacy binary "node"
npm WARN For further explanations, please read
/usr/share/doc/nodejs/README.Debian

npm ERR! leveldown@0.10.2 install: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the leveldown@0.10.2 install script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the leveldown 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 leveldown
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64
npm ERR! command "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "leveldown"
npm ERR! cwd /home/admin/js/leveldown
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.29
npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.4
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/admin/js/leveldown/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

See node-ws for an already completed example that has this setup.

[andrewrk]

Note this also prevents npm2deb from working for projects that depend (possibly indirectly) on modules that have this issue.

[LeoIannacone]

Just a hint:

This is not a problem directly connected to npm2deb, but it's related to nodejs binary name in Debian (some scripts expect a node binary instead).

To quickly workaround this issue, please set an alias in this way: $ alias node='nodejs'

For more info about node binary renaming please refer to Debian wiki page Node.js Policy (Manual).

[andrewrk]

Thanks this helped me get past the issue. Although I had to sudo cp /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node temporarily, it seems the alias didn't work in the subshell that npm2deb spawned.

[LeoIannacone]

The alias does not work. Confirmed.

The sudo cp /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node is the only workaround.

I don't know how to fix this internally to npm2deb, since it is more a system wide problem. We should reconsider to use node as Node.js binary? @kapouer

[kapouer]

@andrewrk you're supposed to add a quilt patch to binding.gyp to rename node to nodejs. @LeoIannacone did you forget https://wiki.debian.org/Javascript/Nodejs/Manual#Patching_binaries_shebang ?

[andrewrk]

Actually the example I gave can be quilt patched to be deleted. For example see http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/node-ws.git;a=blob;f=debian/patches/rm-redundant-legacy-include;h=391b8077ef335a9073c85fd70bd989be036bd762;hb=refs/heads/master

It's only a problem when using npm2deb create.

[LeoIannacone]

@kapouer no, absolutely. The problem is if nan is going to be downloaded via npm.. it will use "node" binary (since it's not patched).. so "npm install" fails.

[andrewrk]

maybe when npm2deb spawns a subshell to run the npm install command, it could modify PATH in the subshell only and add a directory which provides node as a link to /usr/bin/nodejs. This would avoid tampering with the system but still allow npm install to succeed for the duration of npm2deb create

[kapouer]

@LeoIannacone that's precisely the reason why nodejs-legacy package is available - to make sure people can use npm as they do without the rename.

[LeoIannacone]

@andrewrk @kapouer I think as fast workaround I would suggest users to install nodejs-legacy.

For the future, I would think something new: now npm2dep run a "npm install" against the module.

Since the most of them (node modules) comes from github I could edit npm2deb to get source directly from github instead of getting the npm version..

I will think on it.

[kapouer]

Hey did you notice that was in console output of the failed build ?

npm WARN This failure might be due to the use of legacy binary "node"
npm WARN For further explanations, please read
/usr/share/doc/nodejs/README.Debian

[LeoIannacone]

Hi,

I'm marking this issue as "won't fix" since it is related to nodejs binary renaming.

Consider to install node-legacy as workaround while debianize this kind of modules.