Error: The 'brew link' step did not complete successfully
Macosnode.jsNpmHomebrewMacos Problem Overview
I'm trying to install node.js via Homebrew. Unfortunately, I get this error:
➜ ~ brew install node
==> Downloading http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.8.10/node-v0.8.10.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.8.10
==> make install
==> Caveats
Homebrew installed npm.
We recommend prepending the following path to your PATH environment
variable to have npm-installed binaries picked up:
/usr/local/share/npm/bin
Warning: Could not link node. Unlinking...
Error: The `brew link` step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
You can try again using `brew link node'
==> Summary
/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.8.10: 856 files, 13M, built in 103 seconds
So then I try to link node manually...
➜ ~ brew link node
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.8.10... Warning: Could not link node. Unlinking...
Error: Could not symlink file: /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.8.10/lib/node_modules/npm/scripts/relocate.sh
Target /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/scripts/relocate.sh already exists. You may need to delete it.
To force the link and delete this file, do:
brew link -f formula_name
To list all files that would be deleted:
brew link -n formula_name
No luck, so I try forcefully linking node...
➜ ~ brew link -f node
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.8.10... Warning: Could not link node. Unlinking...
Error: Permission denied - /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
I'm not familiar with dtrace in any regard and I'm afraid to mess with permissions, so I tried to sudo..
➜ ~ git:(master) sudo brew link -f node
Password:
Error: Cowardly refusing to `sudo brew link'
You can use brew with sudo, but only if the brew executable is owned by root.
However, this is both not recommended and completely unsupported so do so at
your own risk.
I've tried uninstalling node via brew uninstall node
and retrying the install with no luck.
Macos Solutions
Solution 1 - Macos
I run Mac OS X Mavericks. I tried to install node 0.10.25 and the top answer did not work for me.
natevw says to rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
but if the permissions on /usr/local/lib/node_modules
look like this:
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Feb 2 20:45 node_modules
then brew will not be able to create its npm symlink in that directory. Here's my solution:
Step 1: Update Homebrew
$ brew update
Step 2: Remove node/npm everywhere on your system
Some of these commands are not necessary depending on how you installed node/npm in the past.
$ brew uninstall npm
$ brew uninstall node
$ npm uninstall npm -g
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules
Note: I had stray node files that I found by running brew -v link node
(which gave me the verbose output of the linking errors brew was complaining about). You may need to:
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node
Step 3: Open a new terminal and install node
$ brew install node
Solution 2 - Macos
The homebrew package for node.js now includes npm again, so this happened to me when I missed the homebrew package's message about removing the standalone version first.
Assuming, like me, you've already broken node/npm by attempting the upgrade before knowing to npm uninstall npm -g
first, you can rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
and then brew link node
. This removes the standalone self-hosted npm package (rather than the one brew would like to install) and lets brew symlink its bundled one from Cellar.
Solution 3 - Macos
sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local
would do just fine as mentioned in the brew site troubleshooting
Solution 4 - Macos
You probably already installed an older version of node.js using a different method, so you need to manually remove the files that are getting in brew's way.
Do brew link -n node
and manually delete those conflicting files and directories, then try brew link node
again.
Solution 5 - Macos
I'm a bit late, what worked for me was this:
* npm uninstall npm -g
* brew uninstall node
* brew install node
* sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
* brew link node (caused error with permissions)
* sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
* brew link node
Everything was successful after this sequence
Solution 6 - Macos
Try this. Got from another reference and worked for me.
brew uninstall node
brew update
brew upgrade
brew cleanup
brew install node
sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local
brew link --overwrite node
brew postinstall node
Solution 7 - Macos
I had the same problem after transferring all my applications from my old Mac to my new one.
I found the solution by running brew doctor
:
> Warning: Broken symlinks were found. Remove them with brew prune
After running brew prune
, Homebrew is finally back on track :)
Solution 8 - Macos
My problem had a slightly different solution. The directory in which brew wanted to create the symlinks were not owned by the current user.
ls -la /usr/local/bin/lib/node | grep node
yielded:
drwxr-xr-x 3 24561 wheel 102 May 4 2012 node
drwxr-xr-x 7 24561 wheel 238 Sep 18 16:37 node_modules
For me, the following fixed it:
sudo chown $(users) /usr/local/bin/lib/node_modules
sudo chown $(users) /usr/local/bin/lib/node
ps. $(users)
will get expanded to your username, went a little out of my way to help out lazy copy pasters ;)
Solution 9 - Macos
thx @suweller.
I fixed the problem:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ brew link node
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.25... Warning: Could not link node. Unlinking...
Error: Permission denied - /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
I had the same problem as suweller:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ ls -la /usr/local/lib/ | grep node
drwxr-xr-x 3 24561 wheel 102 11 Okt 2012 node
drwxr-xr-x 3 24561 wheel 102 27 Jan 11:32 node_modules
so i fixed this problem by:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ sudo chown $(users) /usr/local/lib/node_modules
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ sudo chown $(users) /usr/local/lib/node
after i fixed this problem I got another one:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ brew link node
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.25... Warning: Could not link node. Unlinking...
Error: Could not symlink file: /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.25/lib/dtrace/node.d
Target /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d already exists. You may need to delete it.
To force the link and overwrite all other conflicting files, do:
brew link --overwrite formula_name
To list all files that would be deleted:
brew link --overwrite --dry-run formula_name
So I removed node.d by:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ sudo rm /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
got another permission error:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ brew link node
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.25... Warning: Could not link node. Unlinking...
Error: Could not symlink file: /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.25/lib/dtrace/node.d
/usr/local/lib/dtrace is not writable. You should change its permissions.
and fixed it:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ sudo chown $(users) /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.25/lib/dtrace/node.d
and finally everything worked:
➜ bin git:(master) ✗ brew link node
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.25... 1225 symlinks created
Solution 10 - Macos
the ultimate answer: change the owner of that directory to whoever you are
sudo chown -R `whoami` /usr/local/include
which is also recommended by brew if you run brew doctor
Solution 11 - Macos
Most brew install issues with node are caused by permission errors or having node previously installed and then trying to install it via brew. The solution that worked for me finally was:
WARNING: This will uninstall nodejs (multiple versions) use with caution:
-
Remove node via brew:
brew uninstall node
-
also did via force:
brew uninstall node --force
-
To use the script Source: Remove node:
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DomT4/scripts/master/OSX_Node_Removal/terminatenode.sh
Then:
chmod +x /path/to/terminatenode.sh
Then:
./terminatenode.sh .
4. Then make sure to do the following command:
chown $USER /usr/local
5. Then do a brew update (keep doing this until all things are updated):
brew update
6. Clean brew up and run update again (might be redundant) and run doctor to make sure things are in place:
brew cleanup; brew update; brew doctor
7. And finally install node via brew (verbose):
brew install -v node
Solution 12 - Macos
I was getting an error while installation that not able to link node and /usr/local/include is not writable
Below solution worked for me :- First create the include folder, note that this requires sudo privileges
cd /usr/local
sudo mkdir include
sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(brew --prefix)/*
brew link node
Solution 13 - Macos
I also managed to mess up my NPM and installed packages between these Homebrew versions and no matter how many time I unlinked / linked and uninstalled / installed node it still didn't work.
As it turns out you have to remove NPM from the path otherwise Homebrew won't install it: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/blob/master/Library/Formula/node.rb#L117
Hope this will help someone with the same problem and save that hour or so I had to spend looking for the problem...
Solution 14 - Macos
by the Finder, Delete this file:
> /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
in terminal:
$ brew link --overwrite --dry-run node
then:
$ brew link node
Solution 15 - Macos
I have tried all of the methods and none of them works. The easiest way is to reinstall node from https://nodejs.org/en/download/
Simply download the pkg
and install it.
Now I have a working npm
and node
again.
Solution 16 - Macos
Don't know, if it's a good idea or not: After trying all other solutions without success, I just renamed /usr/local/lib/dtrace, linked node and re-renamed the directory again. After that, node worked as expected.
Solution 17 - Macos
I was struggling with this for a while. (for me "npm uninstall npm -g" did nothing)
I tried a bunch of things:
npm uninstall npm -g
brew uninstall node
brew install node
I was still having some issues and was getting errors when i tried to link the node files
Finally i tried this
brew link --overwrite node
That seemed to have fixed it. (it overwrites al the conflicting files and also links node and npm)
Hope this helps
Solution 18 - Macos
I completely uninstalled brew and started again, only to find the same problem again.
Brew appears to work by symlinking the required binaries into your system where other installation methods would typically copy the files.
I found an existing set of node libraries here:
/usr/local/include/node
After some head scratching I remembered installing node at the date against this old version and it hadn't been via brew.
I manually deleted this entire folder and successfully linked npm.
This would explain why using brew uninstall or even uninstall brew itself had no effect.
The highest ranked answer puts this very simply, but I thought I'd add my observations about why it's necessary.
I'm guessing a bunch of issues with other brew packages might be caused by old non-brew instances of packages being in the way.
Solution 19 - Macos
Had been wrecking my head on symlinking node .. and nothing seemed to work...but finally what worked is setting the right permissions . This 'sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local' did the work for me.
Solution 20 - Macos
I fixed this in El Capitan by using the following command. Honestly, no idea what it does, but thought I'd share since it fixed my problem.
brew link --overwrite node
Solution 21 - Macos
You need to remove the npm package manually.
first unlink node: brew link -n node
remove npm folder: rm -R /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.8.10/lib/node_modules/npm
link again: brew link node
there will be a soft link to the new location of npm