Installer does not work without sudo on Ubuntu

[rohandhruva]

I chose to install keybase-installer without the -g option (to avoid creating global files). The package was installed by npm in ~/node_modules/, in the "local mode". Running keybase-installer now fails because it tries to install in /usr/bin instead of ~/node_modules/.bin.

Why is keybase not trying to install in local mode?

Here is the output:

rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer 
error: Permission denied installing to /usr/bin: try running `sudo keybase-installer`
rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer -d 
debug: + cmd.run 0.1.6
debug: ++ Installer::run
debug: +++ Installer::test_gpg
debug: --- Installer::test_gpg -> OK
debug: +++ Installer::test_npm
debug: --- Installer::test_npm -> OK
debug: +++ Installer::test_npm_install
debug: ||| Writing temporary file, to see if install will work: /usr/bin/.keybase_test_install_65d1993df79e33579272
debug: --- Installer::test_npm_install
error: Permission denied installing to /usr/bin: try running `sudo keybase-installer`
rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ which keybase-installer 
/home/rdhruva/node_modules/.bin/keybase-installer

[maxtaco]

This is a case I didn't think of. We're trying to balance not installing as root if at all possible, but also not to confuse those who don't have as much experience as you.

There's a workaround for you for now, which is just to use --prefix=.. Do you think this is sufficient?

[rohandhruva]

How do I use --prefix?

rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer --prefix=/home/rdhruva/temp/foo
error: Permission denied installing to /usr/bin: try running `sudo keybase-installer`
rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer -n "npm --prefix=/home/rdhruva/temp/foo" 
execvp(): No such file or directory

error: The npm command you specified `npm --prefix=/home/rdhruva/temp/foo` wasn't found

Sorry I am not too familiar with npm. I installed keybase-installer in my homedir, and added ~/node_modules/.bin to my $PATH manually.

[maxtaco]

It's a bug, let me fix it, give me 5 min. Thanks.

[rohandhruva]

Hm.. I see this was referenced in issue #38 and fixed in 4fc0921: do I not have the latest version? I did npm install keybase-installer a few minutes back.

Also, the environment variable workaround in that issue doesn't seem to work:

rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=/home/rdhruva/temp/foo keybase-installer 
error: Permission denied installing to /usr/bin: try running `sudo keybase-installer`

[maxtaco]

Closed in c11c02e9e4a1790e63abda11c01c7865d3fe8d5d aka keybase-installer@v0.1.7

Try an npm install keybase-installer and see if that helps. Thanks for your feedback.

[rohandhruva]

Still doesn't work:

rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer --prefix=/home/rdhruva/temp/foo
error: Permission denied installing to /usr/bin: try running `sudo keybase-installer`
rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer --prefix=/home/rdhruva/temp/foo -d 
error: Permission denied installing to /usr/bin: try running `sudo keybase-installer`
rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer -d  --prefix=/home/rdhruva/temp/foo 
debug: + cmd.run 0.1.7
debug: ++ Installer::run
debug: +++ Installer::test_gpg
debug: --- Installer::test_gpg -> OK
debug: +++ Installer::test_npm
debug: --- Installer::test_npm -> OK
debug: +++ Installer::test_npm_install
debug: ||| Writing temporary file, to see if install will work: /usr/bin/.keybase_test_install_58a0b327577f1b617c6c
debug: --- Installer::test_npm_install
error: Permission denied installing to /usr/bin: try running `sudo keybase-installer`

The help message still doesn't show the --prefix option. Additionally, note that in the second command, -d was not parsed, which is a bug in itself.

[maxtaco]

try without the equals:

keybase-installer --prefix /home/rdhruva/temp/foo

[rohandhruva]

Perfect, that worked! Any idea why --prefix doesn't appear in the help, though?

rdhruva@ubuntu:~$ keybase-installer --help 
usage: keybase-installer [-vh?] [-C] [-u <url-prefix>] [<keybase-version>]

        Upgrade or install a version of keybase.  Check signatures for Keybase.io's signing
        key. You can provide a specific version or by default you'll get the most recent
        version.

Boolean Flags:
        -d/--debug         -- Turn on debugging output
        -v/--version       -- Print the version and quit
        -h/--help          -- Print the help message and quit
        -C/--skip-cleanup  -- Don't delete temporary files after install
        -j/--key-json      -- Output the hash of the JSON file corresponding to the built-in keyset
        -S/--no-https      -- Don't use HTTP. This should be safe since we check PGP sigs on everything.

Options:
        -u/--url-prefix    -- Specify a URL prefix for fetching (default: [object Object])
        -g/--gpg           -- Use a GPG command other than `gpg`
        -n/--npm           -- Use an npm command other than `npm`
        -k/--keyring-dir   -- Where to store our GPG keys (default: ~/.keybase-installer/keyring)
        -p/--prefix        -- Install to the given prefix (rather than where `npm` installs by default)

Version: 0.1.7

[rohandhruva]

Also, why is it trying to create directories bin and lib in the --prefix, instead of using the standard node_modules and node_modules/.bin? I assume it is to keep compatibility with being installed in /usr?

[maxtaco]

it's there! see the last one.

-p/--prefix -- Install to the given prefix (rather than where npm installs by default)

[rohandhruva]

it's there! see the last one.

Wow -- that was pretty silly of me, sorry!

[maxtaco]

No worries, as for the install layout, we're doing with whatever node wants to do. Now, it could be you want one more flag, which is --local, whereby keybase-installer installs into the local node_modules dir. We can do that, I'll put it on the list, though it's not urgent since not many others have asked for it.

[maxtaco]

See #43 for the new --local flag. And see #42 for eventually handling --foo=bar style command-line flags.