Gatsby new fails to install the sharp package and breaks - npm

Question

I can't initiate a gatsby starter project. The new command process breaks down during initialization, and results in an error and non-compilable project.
Here's the command:
> gatsby new gatsby-test
The follwing process starts, failing when during npm install when the sharp package is attempting to install.
info Creating new site from git:
Cloning into 'gatsby-test'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 10, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (10/10), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (6/6), done.
remote: Total 2309 (delta 4), reused 10 (delta 4), pack-reused 2299
Receiving objects: 100% (2309/2309), 12.62 MiB | 7.98 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1487/1487), done.
success Created starter directory layout
info Installing packages...
> sharp#0.23.2 install /home/developer/projects/gatsby-test/node_modules/sharp
> (node install/libvips && node install/dll-copy && prebuild-install) || (node-gyp rebuild && node install/dll-copy)
info sharp Downloading https://github.com/lovell/sharp-libvips/releases/download/v8.8.1/libvips-8.8.1-linux-x64.tar.gz
fs.js:114
throw err;
^
Error: EACCES: permission denied, copyfile '/tmp/1890-libvips-8.8.1-linux-x64.tar.gz' -> '/home/developer/.npm/_libvips/libvips-8.8.1-linux-x64.tar.gz'
at Object.copyFileSync (fs.js:1728:3)
at WriteStream.<anonymous> (/home/developer/projects/gatsby-test/node_modules/sharp/install/libvips.js:104:16)
at WriteStream.emit (events.js:198:13)
at lazyFs.close (internal/fs/streams.js:207:14)
at FSReqWrap.args [as oncomplete] (fs.js:140:20)
make: Entering directory '/home/developer/projects/gatsby-test/node_modules/sharp/build'
TOUCH Release/obj.target/libvips-cpp.stamp
CXX(target) Release/obj.target/sharp/src/common.o
In file included from ../src/common.cc:25:0:
/usr/include/vips/vips8:35:10: fatal error: glib-object.h: No such file or directory
#include <glib-object.h>
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
sharp.target.mk:129: recipe for target 'Release/obj.target/sharp/src/common.o' failed
make: *** [Release/obj.target/sharp/src/common.o] Error 1
make: Leaving directory '/home/developer/projects/gatsby-test/node_modules/sharp/build'
gyp ERR! build error
gyp ERR! stack Error: `make` failed with exit code: 2
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.onExit (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/build.js:194:23)
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:198:13)
gyp ERR! stack at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:248:12)
gyp ERR! System Linux 4.15.0-70-generic
gyp ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /home/developer/projects/gatsby-test/node_modules/sharp
gyp ERR! node -v v10.17.0
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v5.0.5
gyp ERR! not ok
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents#1.2.9 (node_modules/fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents#1.2.9: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents#2.1.2 (node_modules/chokidar/node_modules/fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents#2.1.2: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! sharp#0.23.2 install: `(node install/libvips && node install/dll-copy && prebuild-install) || (node-gyp rebuild && node install/dll-copy)`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the sharp#0.23.2 install script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /home/developer/.npm/_logs/2019-11-18T16_45_16_026Z-debug.log
ERROR
Command failed with exit code 1: npm install
Error: Command failed with exit code 1: npm install
- error.js:56 makeError
[lib]/[gatsby-cli]/[execa]/lib/error.js:56:11
- index.js:114 handlePromise
[lib]/[gatsby-cli]/[execa]/index.js:114:26
- next_tick.js:68 process._tickCallback
internal/process/next_tick.js:68:7
Any idea what's going on here? I saw there were some problems with sharp in the past but that is supposed to be a closed and fixed issue now. What am I missing here?

Answer 1

You can fix this by running the below in your terminal...
rm -rf /Users/{username}/.npm/_libvips
brew install vips
rm -rf node_modules
npm install

Answer 2

The following line:
Error: EACCES: permission denied, copyfile '/tmp/1890-libvips-8.8.1-linux-x64.tar.gz' -> '/home/developer/.npm/_libvips/libvips-8.8.1-linux-x64.tar.gz'
suggests you have a permissions error moving tmp file to your users local .npm directory. Hard to tell why this is without knowing more context about which user ran the command, etc.
The following line:
fatal error: glib-object.h: No such file or directory
suggests you don't have sharp or vips correctly installed.
npm install sharp
For Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install -y libvips-tools
For mac:
brew update vips
For archlinux/manjaro:
sudo pacman -S libvips

Answer 3

I had the same issue. I solved it by downloading the package manually and pasting in
download the libvips from https://github.com/lovell/sharp-libvips/releases/download/v8.8.1/libvips-8.8.1-linux-x64.tar.gz
copy the lib into .npm folder
sudo cp libvips-8.8.1-linux-x64.tar.gz /home/[YOURNAME]/.npm/_libvips/
remove your broken gatsby-test folder
run
gatsby new gatsby-test
again

Answer 4

To fix this, I ran:
rm -rf node_modules
yarn cache clean
yarn add --dev yarn-upgrade-all
npx yarn-upgrade-all
Then, I re-installed all necessary packages removed from package.json when I ran the command to upgrade all packages.
Afterwards, I ran gatsby build and gatsby develop

Answer 5

Try the sudo command. If you're happy with applying root perms to the install.