Error installing Dalek JS Module - Chrome Browser - npm

Question

I'm having trouble installing the Chrome Browser Dalek JS Module.
Here's an extract from the console output:
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/abbrev
> dalek-browser-chrome#0.0.2 install /Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome
> node install.js
Chromedriver installation failed Error: EACCES, permission denied '/Users/xxx/tmp/chromedriver'
at Object.fs.unlinkSync (fs.js:582:18)
at rimrafSync (/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/node_modules/rimraf/rimraf.js:154:8)
at Promise._successFn (/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/install.js:176:7)
at Promise._withInput (/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/node_modules/kew/kew.js:204:25)
at Promise._chainPromise (/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/node_modules/kew/kew.js:244:13)
at Promise.then (/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/node_modules/kew/kew.js:144:13)
at /Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/install.js:175:23
at loadCbs.length (/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/node_modules/npmconf/npmconf.js:76:7)
at Array.forEach (native)
at /Users/xxx/Sites/tests/node_modules/dalek-browser-chrome/node_modules/npmconf/npmconf.js:75:13
npm ERR! dalek-browser-chrome#0.0.2 install: `node install.js`
npm ERR! `sh "-c" "node install.js"` failed with 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the dalek-browser-chrome#0.0.2 install script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the dalek-browser-chrome package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR! node install.js
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR! npm owner ls dalek-browser-chrome
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! System Darwin 12.4.0
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "dalek-browser-chrome" "--save-dev"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/xxx/Sites/tests
npm ERR! node -v v0.8.15
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.66
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/xxx/Sites/tests/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0
i'm running Mac OS X 10.8.4. it looks like a permissions issue, but i'm running the install as follows:
sudo npm install dalek-browser-chrome --save-dev
UPDATE
I did try running this without sudo first - but got the following:
── ncp#0.4.2
├── kew#0.1.7
├── q#0.9.6
├── adm-zip#0.4.3
├── rimraf#2.2.2 (graceful-fs#2.0.0)
└── npmconf#0.1.2 (once#1.1.1, inherits#2.0.1, osenv#0.0.3, ini#1.1.0, mkdirp#0.3.5, semver#2.1.0, nopt#2.1.2, config-chain#1.1.7)
npm ERR! Error: EACCES, open '/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/package.json'
npm ERR! { [Error: EACCES, open '/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/package.json']
npm ERR! errno: 3,
npm ERR! code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR! path: '/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/package.json' }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! System Darwin 12.4.0
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "dalek-browser-chrome" "--save-dev"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/xxx/Sites/tests
npm ERR! node -v v0.8.15
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.66
npm ERR! path /Users/xxx/Sites/tests/package.json
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno 3
npm ERR! stack Error: EACCES, open '/Users/xxx/Sites/tests/package.json'
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/xxx/Sites/tests/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0
Based on this I tried it with Sudo.
Any idea what else it might be?

Answer 1

The chromedriver module is attempting to run an install script that touches files outside of the module's directory.
This is a bug with the chromedriver module. It should not be trying to touch any files outside of its module folder at install time. If this is absolutely necessary, it can ask for permission from you at run time and do what it needs to do.
In order to prevent surprising exploits, npm runs package lifecycle scripts as nobody when you are running npm as root. The nobody user doesn't have permission to write to /Users/xxx/tmp (weird username you've chosen, btw), so the install script fails.
What if a package were to write to /etc/hosts or something, and add a bunch of phishing site IP addresses as the location for various bank websites? If you download a command, and then run it, and it does some bad stuff, ok, you screwed up and trusted the wrong program. But if simply installing the program does some bad stuff like this, then npm has violated your trust, and I try not to let that happen.
You could argue that you've explicitly asked to download the program, but since the web of trust with small dependencies can get very wide, it's just a bit too dangerous for me to sleep well at night, so that's why npm has this rule.

Answer 2

The problem could be related with the use of sudo,
the module is a local one, so you should be able to install it without the use of sudo.
After the chromedriver executable is downloaded, the installer tries to fix the permissions of the downloaded file, which might result in this problem.
Further read on to sudo or not: http://howtonode.org/introduction-to-npm