Cannot find module 'agentkeepalive' when updating NPM to 7.20.3

Question

When I'm trying to update npm to 7.20.3 (npm install -g [email protected]), npm throws :

npm ERR! code MODULE_NOT_FOUND
npm ERR! Cannot find module 'agentkeepalive'
npm ERR! Require stack:
npm ERR! - /Users/ShaggyRogers/.nvm/versions/node/v14.16.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/make-fetch-happen/agent.js
...

Solution 1

In order to quickly fix this error just install or re-install globally agentkeepalive :

npm install -g agentkeepalive --save

Then update npm :

npm install -g [email protected]

UPDATE :

Since June 23 2021, the bug seems to be fixed in v7.17.0 (GitHub issue)

You can first upgrade to v7.17.0:

npm install -g [email protected]

Then upgrade to the last version of npm :

npm install -g [email protected]

or

npm install -g [email protected]

Solution 2

This has been discussed on github

TL;DR;

It has been fixed in npm v7.17.0 and newer. I managed to upgrade from 7.10.0 to 7.21.0 and avoid this error entirely (and not dealing with agentkeepalive) by upgrading first to 7.17.0 and then to 7.21.0.