create-react-app's 'npm start' doesn't work, even with newly built apps. Errors thrown inside chokidar node_module

Question

Run into this error when using 'npm start test_app' on a newly created application using 'create-react-app'. This problems also shows up on my previously created projects using create-react-app. I've tried updating the node version to v8.9.1 and the npm version to 5.5.1. The problem still persists.

test_app@0.1.0 start /home/user/test_app react-scripts start

Starting the development server...

events.js:160
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: watch /home/user/test_app/public ENOSPC
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1012:11)
    at FSWatcher.start (fs.js:1429:19)
    at Object.fs.watch (fs.js:1456:11)
    at createFsWatchInstance (/home/user/test_app/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:37:15)
    at setFsWatchListener (/home/user/test_app/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:80:15)
    at FSWatcher.NodeFsHandler._watchWithNodeFs (/home/user/test_app/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:228:14)
    at FSWatcher.NodeFsHandler._handleDir (/home/user/test_app/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:407:19)
    at FSWatcher.<anonymous> (/home/user/test_app/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:455:19)
    at FSWatcher.<anonymous> (/home/user/test_app/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:460:16)
    at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:123:15)

npm ERR! Linux 4.4.0-81-generic
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/nodejs/bin/node" "/usr/local/nodejs/bin/npm" "start"
npm ERR! node v6.3.1
npm ERR! npm  v3.10.3
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! test_app@0.1.0 start: `react-scripts start`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the test_app@0.1.0 start script 'react-scripts start'.
npm ERR! Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm installed.
npm ERR! If you do, this is most likely a problem with the test_app package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     react-scripts start
npm ERR! You can get information on how to open an issue for this project with:
npm ERR!     npm bugs test_app
npm ERR! Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls test_app
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

I get the following warnings while running 'npm install' after using create-react-app to create the app (This might be relevant since chokidar which throws the error is a wrapper around fs.watch):

npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@1.1.2 (node_modules/fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@1.1.2: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})

Answer 1

The answer is update node version .

nvm install lts/*

I had the same issue, I was working with node 8 (now on 10) since a previous project, it is because of deprecation issues, it is sad to say but old js functions have completely been removed