[BUG] npm execs node-gyp as SUDO_USER not as USER.

[jessegranger]

What / Why

If you run sudo npm install, any modules that require to be built with node-gyp will attempt that build as the wrong user ($SUDO_USER).

When

• sudo npm install heapdump (or any module that needs node-gyp)

How

Current Behavior

• sudo npm install heapdump
• Result:

> [email protected] install /opt/mpath/api/node_modules/heapdump
> node-gyp rebuild

gyp WARN EACCES current user ("jesse") does not have permission to access the dev dir "/root/.cache/node-gyp/14.2.0"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/opt/mpath/api/node_modules/heapdump/.node-gyp"
gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/opt/mpath/api/node_modules/heapdump/.node-gyp'
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.10.0-1062.18.1.el7.x86_64
gyp ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /opt/mpath/api/node_modules/heapdump
gyp ERR! node -v v14.2.0
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v5.1.0
gyp ERR! not ok
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! [email protected] install: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] install script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2020-05-12T13_40_57_692Z-debug.log

Key Facts:

The command is running under sudo, and the current $SUDO_USER is jesse, but according to the node-gyp team, this is a correct error (from their perspective) because node-gyp is being run as jesse (by npm), while $HOME is set to /root (by sudo).

The bug is that npm is invoking node-gyp as $SUDO_USER, not as $USER.

[darcyclarke]

npm v6 is no longer in active development; We will continue to push security releases to v6 at our team's discretion as-per our Support Policy.

If your bug is reproducible on v7, please re-file this issue using our new issue template.

If your issue was a feature request, please consider opening a new RRFC or RFC. If your issue was a question or other idea that was not CLI-specific, consider opening a discussion on our feedback repo

Closing: This is an automated message.