Node error Cannot read property 'resolve' of undefined
I am using reactjs and am unable to install any packages using npm install. The error message I'm getting is :
npm ERR! Cannot read property 'resolve' of undefined
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /home/stash/.npm/_logs/2019-03-11T10_07_30_264Z-debug.log
When I do npm install -verbose:
npm info it worked if it ends with ok
npm verb cli [ '/usr/local/bin/node',
npm verb cli '/usr/local/bin/npm',
npm verb cli 'install',
npm verb cli '-verbose' ]
npm info using [email protected]
npm info using [email protected]
npm verb npm-session 869376d36eca27b5
npm info lifecycle [email protected]~preinstall: [email protected]
npm timing stage:loadCurrentTree Completed in 22ms
npm timing stage:loadIdealTree:cloneCurrentTree Completed in 1ms
npm timing stage:loadIdealTree:loadShrinkwrap Completed in 1231ms
npm timing stage:rollbackFailedOptional Completed in 1ms
npm timing stage:runTopLevelLifecycles Completed in 2661ms
npm verb stack TypeError: Cannot read property 'resolve' of undefined
npm verb stack at regFetch (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-registry-fetch/index.js:76:23)
npm verb stack at fetchPackument (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/fetchers/registry/packument.js:42:10)
npm verb stack at packument (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/fetchers/registry/packument.js:20:10)
npm verb stack at getManifest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/fetchers/registry/manifest.js:22:10)
npm verb stack at manifest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/fetchers/registry/manifest.js:13:10)
npm verb stack at Object.manifest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/fetchers/registry/index.js:17:12)
npm verb stack at Object.Fetcher#manifest [as manifest] (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/genfun/lib/genfun.js:15:38)
npm verb stack at manifest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/fetch.js:23:18)
npm verb stack at pinflight (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/manifest.js:24:12)
npm verb stack at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/promise-inflight/inflight.js:29:24
npm verb stack at Promise._execute (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/bluebird/js/release/debuggability.js:313:9)
npm verb stack at Promise._resolveFromExecutor (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/bluebird/js/release/promise.js:483:18)
npm verb stack at new Promise (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/bluebird/js/release/promise.js:79:10)
npm verb stack at _inflight (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/promise-inflight/inflight.js:28:25)
npm verb stack at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/promise-inflight/inflight.js:22:14
npm verb stack at tryCatcher (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/bluebird/js/release/util.js:16:23)
npm verb cwd /var/www/html/lite-proj/lite-proj
npm verb Linux 4.4.0-142-generic
npm verb argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "-verbose"
npm verb node v11.10.1
npm verb npm v6.7.0
npm ERR! Cannot read property 'resolve' of undefined
npm verb exit [ 1, true ]
npm timing npm Completed in 3862ms
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /home/stash/.npm/_logs/2019-03-11T10_12_15_921Z-debug.log
I am not even able to uninstall npm and reinstall it as I am getting the same error when I try to uninstall. What is the issue here and how do I fix it?
Answer
I got into this situation with an old version of the n node version switcher (~v2), having switched onto Node v12. I was able to fix it by switching to a much older version of Node it had installed using n, v8 worked for me, and then upgrade the version switcher with sudo npm install -g n.
From there I could switch to any version of node and use npm again.