Error on node-gyp rebuild while installing packages with npm

[janschumann]

While installing packages that require a node-gyp rebuild (like zombie) the following error occurs:

Error: node-gyp requires that the user's home directory is specified in either of the environmental variables HOME or USERPROFILE

This is a fix for that (in puppet/provider/package/npm.rb) (borrowed from puppet labs-nodejs):

  if Puppet::Util::Package.versioncmp(Puppet.version, '3.0') >= 0
    has_command(:npm, 'npm') do
      is_optional
      environment :HOME => "/root"
    end
  else
    optional_commands :npm => 'npm'
  end

[janschumann]

If you want I can send a pull request. I am testing right now on Ubuntu 12.04, 14.04 and Debian 7.5.0 ...

[willdurand]

yup

[psychemedia]

I think I'm getting this same issue trying to install tty.js - it worked fine for me on a Linux 13.04 box, but I just moved to 14.04 [config.vm.box = "phusion/ubuntu-14.04-amd64" ] and it's started to fail (message below).

I tried to add puppet/provider/package/npm.rb as suggested above, but continue to get the same error?
MY ERROR - swapping in #commands :npm => 'npm' and using the above code does fix the installation errors

Error: Execution of '/usr/local/bin/npm install --global tty.js' returned 1: npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/tty.js
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/tty.js
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/pty.js
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/term.js
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/socket.io
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/term.js
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/socket.io
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/pty.js
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/connect
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/commander
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/range-parser
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/mkdirp
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/cookie
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/buffer-crc32
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/fresh
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/methods
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/send
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/cookie-signature
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/debug
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/socket.io-client
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/policyfile
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/base64id
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/redis
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/connect
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/mkdirp
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/range-parser
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/commander

> [email protected] install /usr/local/lib/node_modules/tty.js/node_modules/pty.js
> node-gyp rebuild


/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/node-gyp.js:54
    throw new Error(
          ^
Error: node-gyp requires that the user's home directory is specified in either of the environmental variables HOME or USERPROFILE
    at new Gyp (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/node-gyp.js:54:11)
    at gyp (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/node-gyp.js:43:10)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js:20:12)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
    at startup (node.js:119:16)
    at node.js:906:3
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/fresh
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/buffer-crc32
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/cookie
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/send
npm ERR! [email protected] install: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 8
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] install script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the pty.js package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls pty.js
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.