Node.js error: global module: ' command not found '

Question

Solution:

1. Permissions error - fixed with confidence from comment by Kadir
2. Bower Sourcing of bin - fixed with with clarity from Josiah's comment
3. sudo chown -R $(whoami):admin /usr/local

.bower-profile

if [ -r ~/.profile ]; then . ~/.profile; fi
case "$-" in *i*) if [ -r ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi;; esac

.profile

PATH=~/npm-global/bin:$PATH

---

Original Error Trail

Mac OS X El Captain | Node v5.0 | NPM 3.4.0

npm works, global commands like git work.

bower -g in projects does not work.

Aarons-MacBook-Air:test2 Akorn$ ionic start todo blank
-bash: ionic: command not found
Aarons-MacBook-Air:test2 Akorn$ ionic --version
-bash: ionic: command not found
Aarons-MacBook-Air:test2 Akorn$ npm ionic -l -v
3.4.0

Permission Error

Aarons-MacBook-Air:test2 Akorn$ brew update && brew upgrade node
Error: The /usr/local directory is not writable.
Even if this directory was writable when you installed Homebrew, other
software may change permissions on this directory. Some versions of the
"InstantOn" component of Airfoil are known to do this.

You should probably change the ownership and permissions of /usr/local
back to your user account.
  sudo chown -R $(whoami):admin /usr/local
Aarons-MacBook-Air:test2 Akorn$ brew --version
Homebrew 0.9.5 (git revision fb84; last commit 2015-12-22)

Questions Can I trust sudo fixes?

Is there a better fix?

Are there methods for further diagnostics?

How did I break this?

1. Incorrectly updating npm or node - so however npm calls global functions from wrong folder.

2. Incorrectly using brew.

3. Ugly code in .profile / .profile_bash .

   ~/.bash_profile :

    source ~/.profile

   ~/.profile :

    export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.rvm/bin" # Add RVM to PATH for scripting [[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM into a shell session *as a function*

Answer 1

Generally when you see -bash: mycommand: command not found it means that the command you're trying to use isn't located where bash is looking for it. Bash usually looks in the present working directory and in any location that's listed in the $PATH environment variable.

You can see what the current value of $PATH is by running echo $PATH . Judging based on the ~/.profile contents you posted, the location you have ionic installed in is not part of your path. You'll have to verify where that file is installed; maybe /Users/Akorn/npm-global/lib or maybe there was a shortcut installed in /usr/local/bin or /usr/bin , so you'll want to check those too and make sure that those are added to your $PATH . As an example, my $PATH looks like this; /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/Josiah/docker/bin

To learn how to add a new location to your $PATH , read up on the first answer to this question .