Global NPM package installed but command not found

Question

I have globally installed two npm packages "download" and "enigmavirtualbox" via command line:

npm install -g download and npm install -g engimavirtualbox

I'm trying to use them in a batch file to bundle a single .exe file from my node project. For both, the commands npm list -g <packagename> yield the respective version output, independent of the present working directory.

However, inside my batch script the commands "download" and "enigmavirtualbox" cannot be found.

Running npm root -g yields C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules and looking inside that folder I can see that folders for both packages are present.

What I have tried:

• Changing npm root as described here
• Uninstall and reinstall packages
• Add env. variable NODE_PATH to point to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules
• Add C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules to PATH env. variable

The same setup works on my second computer (both run Win7 64bit). Is something wrong with my node installation, or what am I doing wrong?

Solution 1

The executable binaries and .cmd files end up in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\npm (minus the node_modules at the end) so adding that path to the PATH env. variable fixed the issue.

With environment variables, the path can be abbreviated: %appdata\npm.

Solution 2

If the above method does not work then use this command to explicitly set the path

npm config set prefix c:/Users/<username>/AppData/Roaming/npm

Solution 3

Short answer: Add %APPDATA%\npm to the PATH environment variable.

Long answer:
npm saves the .cmd file which gets executed when you execute a command from a npm package (and everything is working as it should) in the C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\npm directory (%username% is the username of the current user).

Because userprofiles are not necessarily inside of C:\Users it's better to use a variable like %userprofile% which points to the userprofile of the current user or %APPDATA% which points to AppData\Roaming inside of the userprofile of the current user.
By adding %APPDATA%\npm to the PATH env. variable windows automatically searches there for a file with the name you entered as a command if the current directory doesn't contain a file with that name.

For every command there is also a file without a suffix in the npm folder which is a bash script and wont work on Windows (if you don't use bash) but Windows finds the .cmd file first so you don't have to worry about that.

Solution 4

Here more info about this topic : https://medium.com/@alberto.schiabel/npm-tricks-part-1-get-list-of-globally-installed-packages-39a240347ef0

List of packages which have been install globally

npm list -g --depth 0

Solution 5

Set your PATH environment variable to C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\npm. This fixed it for me.

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Comments

[Watchmaker]

That works, although maybe it would be better to use a wildcard: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm. That line has to go before any npm, node or nodejs paths in your PATH env variable, so that npm can find your global packages appropriately.

[deed02392]

I have created my own node package.json and ran npm install -g from there (I haven't published it as I need it to stay private). This puts the package data and dependencies in %appdata%\npm\node_modules but there's no .cmd file where you said.

[Luk Aron]

what's the path for mac ?

[theking2]

The entry is in my path variable gulp can be found bug gulp-sass not. Not working for me.

[Mick]

He asked for "command not found" not for listing the installed packages

[Jürgen 'Kashban' Wahlmann]

Funny enough that variable is set and added correctly, still not found. The Answer of Mr.Noob did it for me (Windows 10).

[aturc]

This also works if you don't have admin privileges, which is nice...

[General Grievance]

Or if you want to add it to your PowerShell profile: $env:Path = "$env:appdata\npm;$env:Path"