NPM is incorrect version on latest Ubuntu (18.04) installation

Question

Normal installation would be sudo apt install nodejs to install Node.js and then sudo apt install npm to install Node Package Manager. However, upon doing so, npm -v says 3.5.2. To upgrade normally, I would do sudo npm install -g npm, which updates to the latest version (which, at the time of writing this article, is 6.0.1).

When I do a which npm, I get /usr/local/bin/npm, however apt installs a symlink at /usr/bin/npm. If I sudo apt purge npm to remove npm, it still leaves the npm version of npm at /usr/local/bin/npm, however npm -v says -bash: /usr/bin/npm: No such file or directory.

Many articles say to use a PPA to install nodejs, but I think there should be a native way to do this through apt.

DigitalOcean instructions on installation normally and through PPA: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-node-js-on-ubuntu-18-04

TecAdmin instructions on installation through PPA: https://tecadmin.net/install-latest-nodejs-npm-on-ubuntu/

Solution 1

TLDR: This problem is caused by Bash caching the path of the npm command, and can be solved by hash -d npm. You don't even need to deal with apt purge unless you want to.

Explanation

Here were my steps for getting a new npm version on Ubuntu. First, do the installation as OP describes:

$ sudo apt-get install npm
(...apt installation of npm was successful...)
$ npm -v
3.5.2
$ command -v npm
/usr/bin/npm
$ sudo npm install -g npm
(...npm installation of npm was successful...so far, so good)

You can see that the new version is already working fine in /usr/local/bin/npm, but unfortunately the Bash cache still has /usr/bin/npm:

$ /usr/local/bin/npm -v
6.4.1
$ npm -v
3.5.2
$ command -v npm
/usr/bin/npm
$ type npm
npm is hashed (/usr/bin/npm)

To fix the problem, clear it from the Bash cache (do this in all open shells):

$ hash -d npm

Now the new version works as desired:

$ npm -v
6.4.1
$ command -v npm
/usr/local/bin/npm

Solution 2

The way I found is to purge npm through sudo apt purge npm, then simply recreate a symlink to the global installation via ln -s /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/bin/npm. After that fix, npm -v returns 6.0.1 as expected.

Solution 3

To have control on installed npm version, I always use nvm (node version control). You can install it through the instructions here: https://github.com/creationix/nvm Then by following command install the latest npm on your computer:

nvm install node

Comments

[l3l_aze]

Worked with Ubuntu 18.04 running through UserLAnd on Android 6.0.1. Thank you! :)

[Robert Munn]

OP you should mark this as the answer.

[LordAnomander]

Weird thing, for me it was quite different. I had the updated version in /usr/bin/npm, so I went the opposite route using ln -s /usr/bin/npm /usr/local/bin/npm. Strange, but your answer helped me to find out how to deal with the incorrect version issue.

[Blairg23]

I actually like this answer better than my own.

[temporary_user_name]

This solved my problem. Thank you so much. Great explanation, too. The one thing that's unclear to me is the exact nature of why clearing the bash cache fixes the problem. Wouldn't it be better to delete the npm stored at /usr/bin/npm? And why is the right version picked up after clearing the bash cache, if both versions remain installed?

[krubo]

@temporary_user_name You can see the path using echo $PATH, which shows that /usr/local/bin will be preferred before /usr/bin if both targets exist when Bash looks through the path. Bash looks through the path only if it doesn't remember where it found the target before.

[RyanNerd]

Lifesaver! Thx. I was stuck trying to do a production build for hours. This solved the issue.

[Tom Bird]

All I had to do was hash -d npm then everything was running!!! Thanks alot!!!