Error: spawn ENOENT

[tylercollier]

The instructions in the README say to add this to package.json:

"scripts": { "preinstall": "lockdown" }

However, when I do that, I get this error:

~/tmp/nodeproj$ npm i
> undefined preinstall /home/tylercollier/tmp/nodeproj
> lockdown

: No such file or directory

npm WARN nodeproj No description
npm WARN nodeproj No repository field.
npm WARN nodeproj No license field.
npm ERR! Linux 3.13.0-74-generic
npm ERR! argv "/home/tylercollier/.nodenv/versions/v4.2.3/bin/node" "/home/tylercollier/.nodenv/versions/v4.2.3/bin/npm" "i"
npm ERR! node v4.2.3
npm ERR! npm  v3.5.1
npm ERR! file sh
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! undefined preinstall: `lockdown`
npm ERR! spawn ENOENT

To fix, I changed it to be:

"scripts": { "preinstall": "node node_modules/.bin/lockdown" }

which seems to work fine.

I'm guessing this has something to do with my environment (Ubuntu 14.04, using node 4.2.3 with nodenv, using npm 3.5.1)? Or I must be missing something if no one else has reported this. But what's happening makes sense to me. Simply having lockdown as a preinstall script shouldn't work, unless you've added node_modules/.bin to your PATH (environment variable) or something, right? But that's not part of the README.

[tylercollier]

If you want to reproduce, throw this in a package.json in some empty directory and do npm install:

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "lockdown": "0.0.8-dev"
  },
  "dependencies": {
  },
  "scripts": {
    "preinstall": "lockdown"
  }
}

[nickvoegeli]

Seeing the same error here on OSX 10.11.3:

npm ERR! Darwin 15.2.0
npm ERR! argv "/Users/nickvoegeli/.nodenv/versions/4.2.3/bin/node" "/Users/nickvoegeli/.nodenv/versions/4.2.3/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v4.2.3
npm ERR! npm  v2.14.7
npm ERR! file sh
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! project@0.0.1 preinstall: `lockdown`
npm ERR! spawn ENOENT

[vladikoff]

I don't remember the context with this but it make sense that this fails because the module is not installed yet and you are trying to run this in the PREINSTALL step.

[vladikoff]

I'm not clear how it worked before, seems like there are some docs suggesting that it was possible before.

[tylercollier]

@vladikoff What your'e saying makes sense, but it can't be the issue, because I manually installed the package with npm install --save lockdown, as suggested in the readme, as step 1. So, the module is installed when the preinstall step runs. Again, you can try this with the reproduction step I gave. In an empty directory, type npm install --save lockdown. Then copy the package.json I provided into the directory and run npm install. Even though the lockdown package exists, you'll get the error.

Because I mentioned a work-around, this case can be closed, but I suggest the README should be updated with the workaround mentioned.

[KellerFuchs]

DISCLAIMER: I don't use Node, so I might be talking shit.

@tylercollier Sounds like either node_modules/.bin/ is not in $PATH when the hook is executed, or the lockdown file isn't set as executable or it has a wrong shebang. Can you check that?

If you don't know how, the output of ls -Al node_modules/.bin/lockdown and head node_modules/.bin/lockdown are a good start.

[tylercollier]

@KellerFuchs should node_modules/.bin/ be in my path? It's not mentioned in the README, nor have I seen it as a common suggestion to do so. One would have to do that for each project they work on, right?

I gave a simple set of instructions for reproduction. One person said they saw the same problem, but @vladikoff didn't mention if he tried reproducing.