NPM modules won't install globally without sudo

Question

I have just reinstalled Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and before anything else i did these steps:

1. Installed Node via package manager with the following script

   sudo apt-get update
   
   sudo apt-get install python-software-properties python g++ make
   
   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js
   
   sudo apt-get update
   
   sudo apt-get install nodejs
   

2. Tried to install yeoman, express, n, yeoman's generators globally and all of them returned the same error

   npm ERR! Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/n/bin/n'

   npm ERR! { [Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/n/bin/n'] errno: 3, code: 'EACCES', path: '../lib/node_modules/n/bin/n' }

   npm ERR!

   npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

   npm ERR! System Linux 3.8.0-29-generic

   npm ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "-g" "-d" "n"

   npm ERR! cwd /home/heberlz

   npm ERR! node -v v0.10.20

   npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.11

   npm ERR! path ../lib/node_modules/n/bin/n

   npm ERR! code EACCES

   npm ERR! errno 3

   npm ERR! stack Error: EACCES, symlink '../lib/node_modules/n/bin/n'

   npm ERR!

   npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:

   npm ERR! /home/heberlz/npm-debug.log

   npm ERR! not ok code 0

3. Reclaimed ownership of the following folders recursively ~/.npm, /usr/lib/node, /usr/lib/node_modules, and of the following symlinks /usr/bin/node, /usr/bin/nodejs with absolutely no success

I need to install yeoman and its generators without sudo not to be in trouble later on :(

Answer 1

Ubuntu 12.04 and using Chris Lea's PPA for install the following works for me:

npm config set prefix '~/.npm-packages'

and adding $HOME/.npm-packages/bin to $PATH

append to .bashrc

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.npm-packages/bin"

see https://stackoverflow.com/a/18277225 from @passy