npm and node commands not found

Question

I am trying to install Node.js

Originally I tried to install it using apt-get install ....

However I later realised that these were out of date and uninstalled them using:

$ sudo apt-get --purge remove node
$ sudo apt-get --purge remove nodejs

I then followed the instructions here:

https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#debian-and-ubuntu-based-linux-distributions

which basically says to do the following:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

I did this and it seemed to install fine! However the issue I have is the commands npm and node is not recognised! However the command nodejs is recognised.

I checked the directories /usr/local/bin and /usr/bin, but could not find node or npm. I did find nodejs though.

How do I fix this issue?

The following: dpkg-query -s nodejs

outputs this:

Package: nodejs
Status: install ok installed
Priority: extra
Section: web
Installed-Size: 2339
Maintainer: Debian Javascript Maintainers <[email protected]>
Architecture: armhf
Version: 0.6.19~dfsg1-6
Depends: libc-ares2 (>= 1.7.3), libc6 (>= 2.13-28), libev4 (>= 1:4.04), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.4.0), libssl1.0.0 (>= 1.0.1), libstdc++6 (>= 4.3.0), libv8-3.8.9.20, zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4)
Breaks: buddycloud-server (<< 0.3.1-2), carto (<< 0.4.6+ds1-2~), coffeescript (<< 1.3.3-3~), node-bones (<< 2.0.1+ds1-3~), node-cli (<< 0.4.4~20120516-1~), node-express (<< 2.5.9-2~), node-get (<< 1.1.5+ds1-2~), node-jake (<< 0.2.32-2~), node-less (<< 1.3.0~20120310-3~), node-mapnik (<< 0.6.7-3~), node-mbtiles (<< 0.2.3-2~), node-optimist (<< 0.3.1-2~), node-semver (<< 1.0.13-2~), node-tilelive (<< 4.2.1-4~), node-uglify (<< 1.2.6-2~), node-vows (<< 0.6.3-2~), npm (<< 1.1.4~dfsg-2~)
Description: Node.js event-based server-side javascript engine
 Node.js is similar in design to and influenced by systems like
 Ruby's Event Machine or Python's Twisted.
 .
 It takes the event model a bit further - it presents the event
 loop as a language construct instead of as a library.
 .
 Node.js is bundled with several useful libraries to handle server tasks :
 System, Events, Standard I/O, Modules, Timers, Child Processes, POSIX,
 HTTP, Multipart Parsing, TCP, DNS, Assert, Path, URL, Query Strings.
Homepage: http://nodejs.org/

Andras · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-08 22:10:39Z

2

When I installed nodejs (almost exactly the same way you did, first the package then the latest version directly), I created a symbolic link in /usr/bin/node -> /usr/bin/nodejs

sudo ln -s nodejs /usr/bin/node

Eventually I moved node into ~/bin and now run it from there, since I keep multiple versions installed.

answered May 8, 2017 at 22:10

Andras

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Yahya Uddin Over a year ago

But what about npm

Andras Over a year ago

npm I installed with apt-get, then refreshed with npm install -g npm, which let me pick the version to use. The global install (-g) places modules into ~/lib/node_modules and programs into ~/bin

arboreal84 · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-07 22:56:06Z

1

dpkg-query -s nodejs will tell you if the package is installed.

If it's incorrectly installed, remove it: apt-get remove --purge nodejs

Then install it again

apt-get update;
apt-get install nodejs;

If it's correctly installed you should have the binaries for node and npm.

$ which node
/usr/bin/node

$ which npm
/usr/bin/npm

edited May 7, 2017 at 22:56

answered May 7, 2017 at 22:32

arboreal84

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3 Comments

Yahya Uddin Over a year ago

dpkg-query -S nodejs just shows me a list of files in user/share/doc/nodejs/... and usr/lib/nodejs and not much else. I performed the update and did sudo apt-get install nodejs, which just said nodejs is already the newest version. Both which node and which npm is empty.

arboreal84 Over a year ago

sorry about that, it was -s rather than -S, I edited the response. should include a line saying: Status: install ok installed

Yahya Uddin Over a year ago

I updated question. And yes it says install ok installed

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