Cannot find module 'internal/fs' after upgrading to node 7

Question

We've recently tried to upgrade to node v7.0.0 on our build server, but started to have issues during the application build task failing on the "bower_concat" step:

Loading "bower-concat.js" tasks...ERROR
Error: Cannot find module 'internal/fs'

What we have installed:

• node v7.0.0 (installed via yum "nodesource" repository)
• npm 4.0.1
• using grunt (if this is relevant)
• grunt-bower-concat 0.6.0

The grunt build task configuration:

grunt.registerTask(
    'build:prod', [
        'clean:prod',
        'copy:prod',
        'replace',
        'bower_concat',
        'ngtemplates',
        'concat',
        'uglify',
        'cssmin',
        'injector:prod',
        'copy:cssfix',
        'copy:dist',
        'bowercopy:dist',
        'bowercopy:fonts',
        'template:setProdVersion'
    ]
);

And the grunt bower_concat task:

bower_concat: {
    all: {
        dest: '<%= app.build %>/bower.js',
        cssDest: '<%= app.build %>/bower.css',
        dependencies: {
            'bootstrap': 'jquery'
        },
        mainFiles: {
            "angular-app-modules": [
                "app/dist/angular-app-modules.min.js",
                "app/dist/angular-app-modules.min.css"
            ]
        }
    }
}, 

Note that it works without any problems on node v6.9.0.

What can be causing the issue? Can we workaround the problem without downgrading to node v6?

---

There is also this relevant issue, but, as of now, the information there does not help in our case.

Answer 1

First, open the console as administrator (or in the terminal with sudo if it is a Linux) and:

npm cache clean

For npm 5 and later

npm cache clean --force

---

Edit:

For windows you might fail to clean the cache, so you can remove the cache manually by deleting all the following folder content:

C:\Users\<USER-NAME>\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache

Thanks "superwf", this case might happen for some, but I never had to do this (maybe because of my lowest security level?!).

End Edit.

---

Then go back to the normal console (not administrator or root), return to your project directory where the package.json is located, and then delete the node_modules folder from your project, remove it completely, and then install node modules again inside your project folder:

npm install

You might need to update your modules before installing modules again. I recommend this, but be careful of breaking changes if there are any major version changes in your modules. This module npm-check-updates can help you to check the latest version and update them.

Also, you maybe need to install the latest global modules as well, check updates by:

ncu -g

or

npm outdated -g

If you're still stuck, you might need to remove the global node_modules folder and reinstall what you want again.

---

Edit:

Yarn option: Some people ended with the same issues even with the cleanup procedures, actually you save your time a lot using Yarn. Personally, I started to use yarn instead of traditional npm i, I can guarantee it is faster, and save your time, and your head from npm headaches.