# Fixing npm On Mac OS X for Homebrew Users

If you just want to fix the issue quickly, scroll down to the "solution" section below.

## Explanation of the issue

If you're a Mac Homebrew user and you installed node via Homebrew, there is a major philosophical issue with the way Homebrew and NPM work together. If you install node with Homebrew try to do `npm update npm -g`, you will see error like this:

```
$ npm update npm -g
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/npm
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/npm
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/npm/1.4.4
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/npm/1.4.4
npm ERR! error rolling back Error: Refusing to delete: /usr/local/bin/npm not in /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
npm ERR! error rolling back     at clobberFail (/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.26/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/gently-rm.js:57:12)
npm ERR! error rolling back     at next (/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.26/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/gently-rm.js:43:14)
npm ERR! error rolling back     at /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.26/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/gently-rm.js:52:12
npm ERR! error rolling back     at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm ERR! error rolling back  npm@1.4.4 { [Error: Refusing to delete: /usr/local/bin/npm not in /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm] code: 'EEXIST', path: '/usr/local/bin/npm' }
npm ERR! Refusing to delete: /usr/local/bin/npm not in /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
File exists: /usr/local/bin/npm
Move it away, and try again. 

npm ERR! System Darwin 13.1.0
npm ERR! command "/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.26/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "update" "npm" "-g"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/dan/Google Drive/Projects/dotfiles
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.26
npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.3
npm ERR! path /usr/local/bin/npm
npm ERR! code EEXIST
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/dan/Google Drive/Projects/dotfiles/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

```

There's an [NPM bug open for this exact problem](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/3794) and a long thread that is still actively being debated, but the summary is that `npm` is its own package manager and it is therefore better to have `npm` manage itself and its packages instead of letting Homebrew do it. Also, using the Homebrew version of `npm` requires `sudo` to install global packages. That's also a very bad idea.

## Solution

This solution fixes the error caused by trying to run `npm update npm -g`. Once you're finished, you also won't need to use `sudo` to install npm modules globally.

Run the following commands to remove all existing global npm modules, uninstall node & npm, re-install node with the right defaults, install npm as its own pacakge, and configure the location for global npm modules to be installed.

```bash
rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules
brew uninstall node
brew install node --without-npm
echo prefix=~/.node >> ~/.npmrc
curl -L https://www.npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
```

Node and npm should be correctly installed at this point. The final step is to add `~/.node/bin` to your `PATH` so commands you install globally are usable. I added this line to my `~/.path` script, which gets called via `~/.bash_profile`. If you want to see a full example you can check out [my dotfiles repo on github](https://github.com/DanHerbert/dotfiles).

```bash
export PATH="$HOME/.node/bin:$PATH"
```

You'll need to re-install your global node modules again. As an example, a few I use are:

```bash
npm install -g grunt-cli http-server uglify-js jshint yo nodemon
```