Installation fails on RHEL7 from NPM Registry, but passes when building a Git Clone

[marcellodesales]

The installation process of "npme" depends on this package on RHEL7...

[root@pppdc9prd8jb node-xxhash]# uname -a
Linux pppdc9prd8jb 3.10.0-229.4.2.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Apr 24 15:26:38 EDT 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@pppdc9prd8jb node-xxhash]# cat /etc/redhat-release 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.1 (Maipo)

Trying to install it from npm triggers an error trying to find the module nan. See https://github.com/npm/npme-installer/issues/61

[root@pppdc9prd8jb tmp]# npm install xxhash
-
> xxhash@0.2.2 install /tmp/node_modules/xxhash
> node-gyp rebuild

module.js:340
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module 'nan'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)
    at require (module.js:380:17)
    at [eval]:1:1
    at Object.<anonymous> ([eval]-wrapper:6:22)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at evalScript (node.js:559:25)
    at startup (node.js:80:7)
    at node.js:929:3
gyp: Call to 'node -e "require('nan')"' returned exit status 8. 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/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:428:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:98:17)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:820:12)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.10.0-229.4.2.el7.x86_64
gyp ERR! command "node" "/bin/node-gyp" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /tmp/node_modules/xxhash
gyp ERR! node -v v0.10.36
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.10.6
gyp ERR! not ok 
npm ERR! Linux 3.10.0-229.4.2.el7.x86_64
npm ERR! argv "node" "/bin/npm" "install" "xxhash"
npm ERR! node v0.10.36
npm ERR! npm  v2.11.0
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE

npm ERR! xxhash@0.2.2 install: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the xxhash@0.2.2 install script 'node-gyp rebuild'.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the xxhash 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 xxhash
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

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

However, when I clone and build, everything works fine...

[root@pppdc9prd8jb tmp]# git clone https://github.com/mscdex/node-xxhash.git
{ "name": "xxhash",
Cloning into 'node-xxhash'...
remote: Counting objects: 101, done.
remote: Total 101 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 101
Receiving objects: 100% (101/101), 32.16 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (43/43), done.

[root@pppdc9prd8jb node-xxhash]# npm install
npm WARN package.json xxhash@0.2.2 No license field.
npm WARN cannot run in wd xxhash@0.2.2 node-gyp rebuild (wd=/tmp/node-xxhash)
nan@1.8.4 node_modules/nan

readable-stream@1.0.33 node_modules/readable-stream
├── isarray@0.0.1
├── inherits@2.0.1
├── string_decoder@0.10.31
└── core-util-is@1.0.1
[root@pppdc9prd8jb node-xxhash]# vim package.json 
[root@pppdc9prd8jb node-xxhash]# rm -rf node_modules/
[root@pppdc9prd8jb node-xxhash]# npm install
npm WARN package.json xxhash@0.2.2 No license field.
npm WARN cannot run in wd xxhash@0.2.2 node-gyp rebuild (wd=/tmp/node-xxhash)
nan@1.8.4 node_modules/nan

readable-stream@1.0.33 node_modules/readable-stream
├── inherits@2.0.1
├── isarray@0.0.1
├── string_decoder@0.10.31
└── core-util-is@1.0.1

I even tried to call the node-gyp and it works as expected...

[root@pppdc9prd8jb node-xxhash]# node-gyp rebuild
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using node-gyp@0.10.6
gyp info using node@0.10.36 | linux | x64
gyp info spawn python
gyp info spawn args [ '/usr/bin/gyp',
gyp info spawn args   'binding.gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-f',
gyp info spawn args   'make',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/tmp/node-xxhash/build/config.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/usr/lib/node_modules/node-gyp/addon-rpm.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/usr/share/node/common.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dlibrary=shared_library',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dvisibility=default',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_root_dir=/usr/share/node',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dmodule_root_dir=/tmp/node-xxhash',
gyp info spawn args   '--depth=.',
gyp info spawn args   '--generator-output',
gyp info spawn args   'build',
gyp info spawn args   '-Goutput_dir=.' ]
gyp info spawn make
gyp info spawn args [ 'BUILDTYPE=Release', '-C', 'build' ]
make: Entering directory `/tmp/node-xxhash/build'
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/hash/src/hash.o
  CC(target) Release/obj.target/hash/deps/xxhash/xxhash.o
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/hash.node
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/hash.node: Finished
  COPY Release/hash.node
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/node-xxhash/build'
gyp info ok 

Could you please help!!!?!?! thanks Marcello

[marcellodesales]

Just as a second note... The installation works properly on Ubuntu

mdesales@ubuntu [05/30/201511:42:56] /tmp $ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 3.13.0-32-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

mdesales@ubuntu [05/29/201518:13:40] /tmp $ npm install xxhash
/
> xxhash@0.2.2 install /tmp/node_modules/xxhash
> node-gyp rebuild

make: Entering directory `/tmp/node_modules/xxhash/build'
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/hash/src/hash.o
  CC(target) Release/obj.target/hash/deps/xxhash/xxhash.o
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/hash.node
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/hash.node: Finished
  COPY Release/hash.node
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/node_modules/xxhash/build'
xxhash@0.2.2 node_modules/xxhash
├── nan@1.8.4
└── readable-stream@1.0.33 (inherits@2.0.1, isarray@0.0.1, string_decoder@0.10.31, core-util-is@1.0.1)

[mscdex]

It looks like this is an npm Enterprise issue that has to do with wrong permissions based on your linked issue. It looks like npm tries to install to a totally different directory in that case and I'm guessing that the appropriate symlink isn't created inside node_modules so that require('nan') works.

So you might check that root has the appropriate permissions to /root/.node-gyp/0.10.36.

[marcellodesales]

Hi @mscdex

Wait... Even if I'm installing in a different directory???

The node-gyp has permission for the root user set...

[root@pppdc9prd8jb npme-installer]# ls -la ~/.node-gyp/0.10.36/
total 0
drwx------. 2 root root  6 May 30 02:24 .
drwx------. 3 root root 20 May 30 02:24 ..

I will try to add permissions to the group and others...

[marcellodesales]

Hi @mscdex

I think it has to do with installing your module using the root user... I can install your module using another user other than root... Could you verify?

[mdesales@pppdc9prd8jb ~]$ npm install xxhash
-
> xxhash@0.2.2 install /export/home/mdesales/node_modules/xxhash
> node-gyp rebuild

make: Entering directory `/export/home/mdesales/node_modules/xxhash/build'
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/hash/src/hash.o
  CC(target) Release/obj.target/hash/deps/xxhash/xxhash.o
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/hash.node
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/hash.node: Finished
  COPY Release/hash.node
make: Leaving directory `/export/home/mdesales/node_modules/xxhash/build'
xxhash@0.2.2 node_modules/xxhash
├── nan@1.8.4
└── readable-stream@1.0.33 (isarray@0.0.1, inherits@2.0.1, string_decoder@0.10.31, core-util-is@1.0.1)

[mscdex]

@marcellodesales Does root also have the right permissions on the parent directories too?

Unfortunately I do not have a RHEL7 setup nor do I install modules as root (the thought makes me cringe).

[marcellodesales]

Yeah I agree... I'm just lazy to get it done with the proper non-root user... I just want to understand why it fails with the root user...

[mscdex]

I really don't know, I'm just guessing. The npm team would be able to help you more with this than I could though.