Cannot build updater tool.

[JordanMartinez]

While following the instructions for compiling the updater tool, I got stuck here:

1. Ran nix-shell
2. Ran npm run build
3. Got this error: sh: ncc: command not found:

[nix-shell:~/Programming/Git Projects/purescript-contrib-governance/updater]$ npm run build

> contrib-updater@ build /home/jordan/Programming/Git Projects/purescript-contrib-governance/updater
> spago bundle-module --to output/index.js && ncc build --minify --out bin index.js

[info] Installation complete.
           Src   Lib   All
Warnings   0     0     0  
Errors     0     0     0  
[info] Build succeeded.
[info] Bundling first...
[info] Bundle succeeded and output file to output/index.js
[info] Make module succeeded and output file to output/index.js
sh: ncc: command not found
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! file sh
npm ERR! errno ENOENT
npm ERR! contrib-updater@ build: `spago bundle-module --to output/index.js && ncc build --minify --out bin index.js`
npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the contrib-updater@ build script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm WARN Local package.json exists, but node_modules missing, did you mean to install?

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/jordan/.npm/_logs/2020-08-27T20_42_15_055Z-debug.log

[thomashoneyman]

Good catch. The shell provides everything except the NPM dependencies — ncc, specifically, which might actually be in Nix and I haven’t checked — so you also need to run npm install.

[JordanMartinez]

Ok. Another issue to fix. I get an error when I run sudo npm link:

[nix-shell:~/Programming/Git Projects/purescript-contrib-governance/updater]$ sudo npm link
sudo npm link
sudo: npm: command not found

Turns out you have to exit nix-shell and then run npm link

[thomashoneyman]

Huh — that’s weird. I’m not exiting the shell and Node is included in the shell, which should also include npm automatically. You don’t have access to npm at all in the shell?

[thomashoneyman]

Reproduction from my system:

~/Desktop/governance/updater (main) $ which node
/.../.nvm/versions/node/v12.0.0/bin/node

~/Desktop/governance/updater (main) $ which npm
/.../.nvm/versions/node/v12.0.0/bin/npm

~/Desktop/governance/updater (main) $ nix-shell

[nix-shell:~/.../governance/updater]$ which node
/nix/store/0j4i6dsqq4fvvm7z5zka62vi3xrfgzv6-nodejs-12.15.0/bin/node

[nix-shell:~/.../governance/updater]$ which npm
/nix/store/0j4i6dsqq4fvvm7z5zka62vi3xrfgzv6-nodejs-12.15.0/bin/npm

However, it's also acceptable to just run npm link outside the shell.

[JordanMartinez]

The issue arises when I use both sudo and npm in the same command. Running npm link causes a crash due to permissions issues, which made me run sudo npm link. However, running that will then output the above error as though npm doesn't exist when it clearly does.