node.jsnpmubuntu-22.04snap

NPM not available outside root when installing node via snap

I just installed node on Ubuntu 22.04 via snap using the following command, per GitHub page instructions:

# snap install node --classic

Afterwards, node and npm both reported their versions successfully.

# node --version
v18.16.0
# npm --version
9.5.1

As soon as I drop out of root though, only node remains available to me as a non-privileged user:

$ node --version
v18.16.0
$ npm --version
-bash: /usr/bin/npm: No such file or directory

Is this expected behaviour? How can I make npm available generally?

For what its worth, here is the content of /snap/bin:

$ ls -l /snap/bin
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 amazon-ssm-agent.ssm-cli -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  7 Jun  1 04:51 lxc -> lxd.lxc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 lxd -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 lxd.benchmark -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 lxd.buginfo -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 lxd.check-kernel -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 lxd.lxc -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 lxd.lxc-to-lxd -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 04:51 lxd.migrate -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 11:52 node -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 11:52 node.npm -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 11:52 node.npx -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 11:52 node.yarn -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Jun  1 11:52 node.yarnpkg -> /usr/bin/snap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  8 Jun  1 11:52 npm -> node.npm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  8 Jun  1 11:52 npx -> node.npx
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Jun  1 04:51 ssm-cli -> amazon-ssm-agent.ssm-cli
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Jun  1 11:52 yarn -> node.yarn
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jun  1 11:52 yarnpkg -> node.yarnpkg

Note that the nodejs and npm packages were previously installed but then removed via apt before trying to use snap. Perhaps some hangover from that is causing this issue?

Solution

  • I have the same issue.

    TL;DR : I removed node snap package (which removes npm snap package too) and installed nvm, then nvm install node. Everything works like a charm.

    To get into the details, I think it would also work to change PATH but I'm not sure it is a recommended way to fix this issue. nvm installation procedure is pretty straightforward.