You may receive an EACCES error when you try to install a package globally. This indicates that you do not have permission to write to the directories that npm uses to store global packages and commands.
You can fix this problem using one of two options:
You should back-up your computer before moving forward.
Find the path to npm's directory:
npm config get prefix
For many systems, this will be /usr/local.
WARNING: If the displayed path is just /usr, switch to Option 2.
Change the owner of npm's directories to the name of the current user (your username!):
sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(npm config get prefix)/{lib/node_modules,bin,share}
This changes the permissions of the sub-folders used by npm and some other tools (lib/node_modules, bin, and share).
There are times when you do not want to change ownership of the default directory that npm uses (i.e. /usr) as this could cause some problems, for example if you are sharing the system with other users.
Instead, you can configure npm to use a different directory altogether. In our case, this will be a hidden directory in our home folder.
Make a directory for global installations:
mkdir ~/.npm-global
Configure npm to use the new directory path:
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
Open or create a ~/.profile file and add this line:
export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
Back on the command line, update your system variables:
source ~/.profile
Test: Download a package globally without using sudo.
npm install -g jshint
Instead of steps 2-4 you can also use the corresponding ENV variable (e.g. if you don't want to modify ~/.profile):
NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=~/.npm-global npm install -g jshint
Last modified February 17, 2016 Found a typo? Send a pull request!