npm hangs on postinstall / unlock

Question

I have a Linux server that runs some virtual Machines using KVM. Host machine is a Debian derivate with kernel 2.6.32-32(-pve).

In roughly 75% of the times I run npm install , it hangs while installing modules. I ran it in silly debug level and it always hangs at the line

npm info postinstall [module name] (older npm versions)

or

npm verb unlock done using [...] (newer npm versions)

forever.

It happens in every project on the host machine and on the virtualized systems for every node and every npm version I have tested (a lot, including the newest ones (2.7.x atm)).

It also is not deterministic. Sometimes it works, sometimes not and most of the times it hangs on a different module.

On my dev machine (which is in the same.network, running OS X 10.10) it works fine.

I am not behind any kind of proxy.

What could possibly be wrong here?

EDIT : For the time being I solved this problem by checking in all my dependencies as gzipped files using https://github.com/JamieMason/shrinkpack

Answer 1

I was having the same issue for several hours, and couldn't work out what the problem was. I tried re-installing everything a few times, manually installing individual modules, switching from x64 to x86 versions of NodeJS, etc, and got nowhere.

In the end, I changed networks, from WiFi over ADSL2+ [~2mbps] to 4G Hotspot [~20mbps] and it worked in 30 seconds. No idea why, since it didn't seem like a network speed issue, but it solved the problem.

Hope this helps someone else, too!

Answer 2

I had the same problem on our Jenkins slaves based on Ubuntu, and it was solved by upgrading npm .

Default npm installed by apt-get has version 1.3.10 now, which is very old (shown by npm --version ). There are at least two ways to upgrade it:

1. Run sudo npm install -g npm command. If you want to install a specific version you can run append it at the end of command: sudo npm install -g npm@2.1.3 .
2. Or you could add NodeSource repositories using these instructions and run usual sudo apt-get update .

Answer 3

I have the same problem on Windows . I deleted my npm-cache folder and reinstalled npm . Everything started working normally after that. The npm-cache folder can be found at

<your-drive>\Users\<your-name>\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache

Remember to turn on 'View hidden files because the AppData folder by default is hidden

You can reinstall npm by using the command,

npm i npm -g

Answer 4

我做了同样的事情，将我的网络从 WiFi 切换到 3G 并且它工作正常。

Answer 5

I'm experiencing the same problem, this is the issue on Github: https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/7862

There are some useful tips that seemed to help a few people.

For me doing $ npm install -g node-gyp (as suggested here: http://gangmax.me/blog/2013/05/13/resolve-npm-update-node-gyp-hung-problem/ ) fixed the problem.

Answer 6

I had the same problem and just run

npm cache clean

And it works!

Answer 7

Had this same problem in Windows. The solution was to restart after installing node and npm and then run command prompt as administrator.

Answer 8

On Windows make sure you are in a native CMD (not in VSCODE or whatever IDE). Also, try increasing the max memory limit for node:

set NODE_OPTIONS=--max_old_space_size=8096 

Answer 9

In my case, a system restart did the work. I ran npm install --verbose which suggested some lock on a file in npm-cache . And I think the system released the file (which was under use) after the system restart. I am using windows.

Answer 10

再次尝试克隆项目并执行 npm i

"

Answer 11

I ran into this with npm v6, and it turned out I was just being impatient. I just needed to wait a little longer and it proceeded to the next step.

Answer 12

npm cache clean --force 

works for me:)

Answer 13

=> this method working with me When npm block in installation Package for IONIC installation and ReactNative and another package npm.

you can change temporary : npm config set prefix C:\\Users[username]\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules2

• change the Path in Environment Variables set C:\\Users[username]\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules2

• Run the your command to install your package .

• open file explorer copy the link C:\\Users[username]\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules

  ok file yourpackage.CMD created another folder Created "node_modules2" in node_modules and contain your package folder.

• copy your package file CMD to parent folder "npm"

• copy your package folder to parent folder "node_modules"

• now run npm config set prefix C:\\Users[username]\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm

• change the Path in Environment Variables set C:\\Users[username]\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm

• now package working correctly with Command line