Grunt on Windows 8: 'grunt' is not recognized

node.js gruntjs grunt-cli
Daniel Attfield picture Daniel Attfield · Oct 2, 2013 · Viewed 68.1k times · Source

I'm having a problem running Grunt from the command line on my Windows 8 machine.

My research indicates the most common solution is to install grunt-cli, since Grunt is no longer global. I also need to make sure I actually install the Grunt task runner, since that's not installed with grunt-cli.

Other solutions point to the PATH system environment variable, but that appears to be pointed as I'd expect to:

C:\Users[username]\AppData\Roaming\npm

Having done all that, I'm still getting a "'grunt' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file" error message in the CLI. I've tried the following things, uninstalling everything after every attempt:

  • Installed grunt-cli globally (npm install -g grunt-cli), then grunt at the directory level I want to use it (npm install grunt)
  • The same as above, but with the order of installation reversed
  • The same as both of the above, but using the Admin Command Prompt

Am I missing something obvious?

Answer

Rik Leigh picture Rik Leigh · Oct 2, 2013

I've not had any issues with grunt on several different windows 8 machines.

If you open the folder: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\npm

Do you have a file named grunt.cmd in this folder?

If not I'd maybe try npm install -g grunt-cli again, maybe from an elevated command prompt.

If this exists and you have C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\npm in your PATH environment variable then typing grunt from a command prompt should work.

Silly question, have you tried closing the command prompt and opening a new one?

Related questions

Jenkins integration with Grunt

I've setup Jenkins v1.550 on Windows Server 2008 R2. It runs as a service at http://localhost:8080 for now. I'm logged into the machine as an Administrator. I've installed Node.js and can run "npm" from the command line. I've also …

Read More
Cannot install NodeJs: /usr/bin/env: node: No such file or directory

I'm trying to install nodeJs into my Ubuntu 14.04 in order to use GruntJs. I've read about Ubuntu different way of doing it (issues?), so this is what I've done in order to install it: sudo apt-get install npm sudo npm …

Read More
Replace a string in a file with nodejs

I use the md5 grunt task to generate MD5 filenames. Now I want to rename the sources in the HTML file with the new filename in the callback of the task. I wonder what's the easiest way to do this.

Read More