NPM local install tried to write ~/.npm folder which got EACCESS error - npm

Question

I tried to add the 'method-override' package to my current Express project. I ran below command, and got error.
qinguo$ npm install method-override --save
npm WARN package.json redis-url#0.2.0 No repository field.
npm ERR! Error: EACCES, mkdir '/Users/qinguo/.npm/parseurl/1.1.3'
npm ERR! { [Error: EACCES, mkdir '/Users/qinguo/.npm/parseurl/1.1.3']
npm ERR! errno: 3,
npm ERR! code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR! path: '/Users/qinguo/.npm/parseurl/1.1.3',
npm ERR! parent: 'method-override' }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! System Darwin 13.3.0
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "method-override" "--save"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/qinguo/allcodes/gitebay/NewX/sh-go
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.29
npm ERR! npm -v 1.5.0-alpha-3
npm ERR! path /Users/qinguo/.npm/parseurl/1.1.3
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno 3
npm ERR! stack Error: EACCES, mkdir '/Users/qinguo/.npm/parseurl/1.1.3'
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/qinguo/allcodes/gitebay/NewX/sh-go/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0
I tried to update npm, re-install, it didn't work.

Answer 1

Try running as sudo -
npm install method-override --save

Answer 2

My guess is that root owns some of the packages in npm's cache. You can check by running:
ls -l ~/.npm
Check if the package causing the error is not owned by your user.
If some of the packages are owned by root, you should chown the ~/.npm folder to your current user.
sudo chown -R `whoami` ~/.npm
Read more: npm cache