npm install error `not foundram Files/nodejs/npm: 3: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm:` - npm-install

Question

I have installed Ubuntu Bash on Windows. I already have nodejs and npm on my windows machine at C:\Program Files\nodejs. In the bash shell in Windows, I am running a script which uses npm install command. The script is giving following error
: not foundram Files/nodejs/npm: 3: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm:
: not foundram Files/nodejs/npm: 5: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm:
/mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm: 6: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting "in")

Answer 1

Note: Before following the steps below, first try to restart your shell.
You can install Node.js and NPM with your Windows PowerShell as well, so if you've done that it won't work properly for your Subsystem. That means you have to install it twice (Powershell and Subsystem) or decide on one thing.
If the preceding text, has not helped you, this is how to solve the problem:
Remove your current installations
sudo apt-get --purge remove node
("sudo apt autoremove node" if console is asking for it)
sudo apt-get --purge remove nodejs
Install node the right way.
This is for version 14 (view current LTS version):
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
Then install build tools so you can install add-ons for npm later
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
Now you can type in
npm -v
node -v
Same thing: nodejs -v
to check whether Node.js and NPM are installed correctly. If it shows nothing, restart the shell.
If it still shows the same error, restart the WSL/ PC or try with sudo npm -v
Here are two links that may also help you.
https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#debian-and-ubuntu-based-linux-distributions
https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/blob/master/README.md#debinstall
Also, take a look at the Node Version Manager (NVM). With it, you can easily switch back and forth between versions.

Answer 2

The solution provided by phucanhapril on May 24, 2017 in this thread worked for me.
To summarise, edit ~/.profile and change your PATH to this:
PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:/usr/bin:$PATH"
(By default it does not include /usr/bin)
Then run:
source ~/.profile
I am not quite sure why npm doesn't work properly in the first place, or why /usr/bin isn't in PATH by default, but the solution worked for me.

Answer 3

I had the same problem to solve I installed "NVM" in my Subsystem
Follow these steps and see if it will solve for you:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.31.0/install.sh -o install_nvm.sh
bash install_nvm.sh
source ~/.profile
nvm install 11.13.0

Answer 4

You can try sudo npm install it was a solution in my particular case.

Answer 5

Linux command for install nodejs and npm
sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm
Set path in linux
export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
reference
https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/3882

Answer 6

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
this is enough, if you still face the problem
node installation needs restart, close you ubuntu window and start again it will solve your problem :)

Answer 7

I had the same problem. This is what I did.
Step 1. Type node -v and npm -v commands in Windows PowerShell and check if node and npm are properly installed
Step 2. Add this to the ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc file
export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
Step 3. Type source ~/.zshrc and/or source ~/.bashrc
Step 4. Type node -v and npm -v commands in bash or zsh shells and the correct versions should now appear

Answer 8

On Visual Studio -> Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> Web Package Management -> make sure $(PATH) is above all the rest.
As long it is not located at the top of the list VS will try to use VS tools instead of npm.
You should also refer windows to the current npm version by following this screenshot, after try npm --version.
Changing npm path:

Answer 9

I had this issue in both Debian and Ubuntu (though in Ubuntu the nvm command did work) when I was running Windows 10 version 1703. Then when I upgraded to version 1903 the problem disappeared.

Answer 10

I had the same error and it may seem silly, but I fixed it by simply typing exit in the console and opening it again.

Answer 11

I received this error when I modified my "~/.bashrc" file to shorten up the bash directory.
At first I had:
if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\W\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u\h:\W\$'
fi
....But then could not run any node operation. I rolled it back and the error stopped happening.
After some troubleshooting, I was able to fix the error by adding ~ before the $ on PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u\h:\W\~$

Answer 12

I just read through many threads trying to do this. There is complete documentation for setting up node, nvm, and npm in wsl, here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/nodejs/setup-on-wsl2
If you already installed node and npm using the following commands,
sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm
NPM will not work. You must first uninstall them using:
sudo apt-get remove nodejs
sudo apt-get remove npm
Follow the guide to completely uninstalling here: How can I completely uninstall nodejs, npm and node in Ubuntu
Then reinstall from the windows guide referenced above.
The windows guide has many other useful resources.
The Tldr to install(from Microsoft Docs):
sudo apt-get install curl
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash
nvm install --lts

Answer 13

I had identical output to that in the question. It occurs because Ubuntu on WSL adds Windows paths to the bash shell, but of course the Windows executables do not work in bash.
I installed nvm, and from there installed node into bash. NVM works out all the paths so it works.