sudo yarn global add on Debian (Raspbian) issue

[jugglingcats]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?

Bug. Apologies if this is a duplicate.

What is the current behavior?

$ sudo yarn global add nodemon
yarn global v0.21.3
warning No license field
[1/4] Resolving packages...
[2/4] Fetching packages...
warning fsevents@1.1.1: The platform "linux" is incompatible with this module.
info "fsevents@1.1.1" is an optional dependency and failed compatibility check. Excluding it from installation.
[3/4] Linking dependencies...
[4/4] Building fresh packages...
success Installed "nodemon@1.11.0" with binaries:
      - nodemon
warning No license field
Done in 10.63s.

$ nodemon
-bash: nodemon: command not found

Symbolic link is broken (as seen by non-root user):

$ file /usr/bin/nodemon
/usr/bin/nodemon: broken symbolic link to ../../root/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/nodemon/bin/nodemon.js

Because root folder is not readable by non-root user:

ls -ld /root
drwx------ 13 root root 4096 Feb 28 15:43 /root

What is the expected behavior?

After sudo install the command should be runnable as a normal user. I expect it's very normal on most linux distros for the root user's home directory to be non-readable except by root.

Please mention your node.js, yarn and operating system version.

$ node -v
v7.5.0

$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="8"
VERSION="8 (jessie)"
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

[jugglingcats]

Tried making /root readable but get further errors, eg:

$ nodemon
fs.js:558
  return binding.open(pathModule._makeLong(path), stringToFlags(flags), mode);
                 ^

Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/root/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/arr-flatten/index.js'
    at Object.fs.openSync (fs.js:558:18)
    at Object.fs.readFileSync (fs.js:468:33)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:20)
    at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:498:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/root/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/arr-diff/index.js:10:15)
    at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)

[Daniel15]

This is odd... If running as root, it should be using /usr/local/share/yarn rather than ~/.yarn. See

yarn/src/util/user-home-dir.js

Lines 5 to 7 in 32b6260

	const userHomeDir = (process.platform === 'linux' && ROOT_USER) ?
	path.resolve('/usr/local/share') :
	require('os').homedir();

Can you see whether ROOT_USER is true in that file (you can just hack a console.log call into it)?

[jugglingcats]

Very odd. I added some logging to the file you suggested and constants.js which is required by it. There is something funny with the order of execution, like the require is returning before being fully executed. In the log statement printing value of _require I expected to see exported constants, not functions?!

user-home-dir.js snippet

console.log("Requiring constants.js...");

var _require = require('../constants');

console.log("Require complete: _require=", _require);

const ROOT_USER = _require.ROOT_USER;

console.log("ROOT USER (in user-home-dir.js): ", ROOT_USER);

const userHomeDir = process.platform === 'linux' && ROOT_USER ? path.resolve('/usr/local/share') : require('os').homedir();

exports.default = userHomeDir;

constants.js snippet

function getUid() {
  if (process.platform !== 'win32' && process.getuid) {
    return process.getuid();
  }
  return null;
}

const ROOT_USER = exports.ROOT_USER = isRootUser(getUid());
console.log("Exported ROOT_USER (in constants.js), value=", ROOT_USER);

function isRootUser(uid) {
  return uid === 0;
}

output

# yarn global add nodemon
Requiring constants.js...
Require complete: _require= { getPathKey: [Function: getPathKey],
  isRootUser: [Function: isRootUser] }
ROOT USER (in user-home-dir.js):  undefined
Exported ROOT_USER (in constants.js), value= true
yarn global v0.21.3
...

Note nodejs version v7.5.0.

[jugglingcats]

I reproduced this issue on PIXEL for PC (x86 live ISO distro of Raspbian) running nodejs v6.10.0. Same yarn version v0.21.3.

I downloaded and ran the PIXEL ISO in Virtual Box (http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/pixel_x86/images/pixel_x86-2016-12-13/2016-12-13-pixel-x86-jessie.iso). Then I followed instructions for Node v6 install (https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#debian-and-ubuntu-based-linux-distributions) and Yarn package install (https://yarnpkg.com/lang/en/docs/install/#linux-tab).

Then I ran yarn global add nodemon and had the same broken symlink issue.

Am not sure if this is Raspbian specific or not, but I don't have time right now to test it on another Debian based distro.

[Daniel15]

There is something funny with the order of execution

@connesc pointed out that there's a circular dependencies (as a comment on #2635 (review)) which probably explains the odd behaviour. I think that needs to be fixed.

[connesc]

Sorry, I did not noticed this report. Indeed, I found the above bug while trying to understand this issue.
A possible fix is to move ROOT_USER to a separate module.

[bestander]

Should be fixed now

[connesc]

Will this be included in the next release? Any ETA ?

[bestander]

Yes, next release.
If you really want it sooner create a PR with a cherry pick onto 0.22-stable branch.
It'll come with the patch

[bestander]

Next release is in about 2 weeks

[connesc]

Thanks @bestander! I just created the PR: #2857.