How to solve npm error "npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE"

Question

I'm trying to learn react, so I have this sample code for the full-stack react voting app, and I am trying to get it to work but after running npm install followed by npm start I receive the following error when I run npm start can anyone help me with this issue:

npm ERR! Darwin 16.4.0
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "run" "server"
npm ERR! node v7.5.0
npm ERR! npm  v4.3.0
npm ERR! file sh
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! [email protected] server: `live-server --public --    
host=localhost --port=3000 --middleware=./disable-browser-cache.js`
npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] server script 'live-server --
public --host=localhost --port=3000 --middleware=./disable-browser- 
cache.js'.
npm ERR! Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm  
installed.
npm ERR! If you do, this is most likely a problem with the voting_app  
package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     live-server --public --host=localhost --port=3000 --  
middleware=./disable-browser-cache.js
npm ERR! You can get information on how to open an issue for this  
project with:
npm ERR!     npm bugs voting_app
npm ERR! Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls voting_app
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /Users/ItsMeMrLi/.npm/_logs/2017-02-17T22_48_03_581Z-
debug.log

npm ERR! Darwin 16.4.0
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "start"
npm ERR! node v7.5.0
npm ERR! npm  v4.3.0
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! [email protected] start: `npm run server`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] start script 'npm run server'.
npm ERR! Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm 
installed.
npm ERR! If you do, this is most likely a problem with the voting_app    
package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     npm run server

npm ERR! You can get information on how to open an issue for this   
project with:
npm ERR!     npm bugs voting_app
npm ERR! Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls voting_app
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /Users/ItsMeMrLi/.npm/_logs/2017-02-17T22_48_03_655Z-
debug.log

Here is my package.json:

{
  "name": "voting_app",
  "version": "1.1.0",
  "author": "Fullstack.io",
  "scripts": {
    "go": "open http://localhost:3000; npm run server",
    "e2e": "nightwatch",
    "test": "./node_modules/.bin/concurrently -k 'npm run server' 'npm  
run e2e'",
    "start": "npm run server",
    "server": "live-server public --host=localhost --port=3000 --  
middleware=./disable-browser-cache.js"
  },
  "private": true,
  "devDependencies": {
  "concurrently": "2.2.0",
  "live-server": "git://github.com/acco/live-server.git"
},
  "dependencies": {
  "semantic-ui": "git://github.com/Semantic-Org/Semantic-
  UI.git#27d58a01793b66318478fbc5b6676804d22d065d"
  }
}

And finally my log file:

0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ '/usr/local/bin/node', '/usr/local/bin/npm', 'start' ]
2 info using [email protected]
3 info using [email protected]
4 verbose run-script [ 'prestart', 'start', 'poststart' ]
5 info lifecycle [email protected]~prestart: [email protected]
6 silly lifecycle [email protected]~prestart: no script for prestart, continuing
7 info lifecycle [email protected]~start: [email protected]
8 verbose lifecycle [email protected]~start: unsafe-perm in lifecycle true
9 verbose lifecycle [email protected]~start: PATH: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/node-gyp-bin:/Users/ItsMeMrLi/Downloads/fullstack-react-code/voting_app/node_modules/.bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin:/Users/ItsMeMrLi/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.1/bin:/Users/ItsMeMrLi/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.1@global/bin:/Users/ItsMeMrLi/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.3.1/bin:/Users/ItsMeMrLi/.cargo/bin:/usr/local/Cellar/smlnj/110.74/libexec/bin:/usr/local/bin:/Users/ItsMeMrLi/homebrew/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin:/Downloads/geckodriver:/usr/local/bin:/Users/ItsMeMrLi/.rvm/bin
10 verbose lifecycle [email protected]~start: CWD: /Users/ItsMeMrLi/Downloads/fullstack-react-code/voting_app
11 silly lifecycle [email protected]~start: Args: [ '-c', 'npm run server' ]
12 silly lifecycle [email protected]~start: Returned: code: 1  signal: null
13 info lifecycle [email protected]~start: Failed to exec start script
14 verbose stack Error: [email protected] start: `npm run server`
14 verbose stack Exit status 1
14 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/lifecycle.js:279:16)
14 verbose stack     at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
14 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.emit (events.js:192:7)
14 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/spawn.js:40:14)
14 verbose stack     at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
14 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:192:7)
14 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:890:16)
14 verbose stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:226:5)
15 verbose pkgid [email protected]
16 verbose cwd /Users/ItsMeMrLi/Downloads/fullstack-react-code/voting_app
17 error Darwin 16.4.0
18 error argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "start"
19 error node v7.5.0
20 error npm  v4.3.0
21 error code ELIFECYCLE
22 error errno 1
23 error [email protected] start: `npm run server`
23 error Exit status 1
24 error Failed at the [email protected] start script 'npm run server'.
24 error Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm installed.
24 error If you do, this is most likely a problem with the voting_app package,
24 error not with npm itself.
24 error Tell the author that this fails on your system:
24 error     npm run server
24 error You can get information on how to open an issue for this project with:
24 error     npm bugs voting_app
24 error Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
24 error     npm owner ls voting_app
24 error There is likely additional logging output above.
25 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Answer 1

Step 1: $ npm cache clean --force

Step 2: Delete node_modules by $ rm -rf node_modules (rmdir /S /Q node_modules in windows) folder or delete it manually by going into the directory and right-click > delete / move to trash. If you are not updating your packages you can delete the package-lock.json file too.

Step 3: npm install

To start again, $ npm start

This worked for me. Hope it works for you too.

While above suggests re-creating package-lock.json file, ensure package-lock.json file exists to begin with, and is tracked by VCS/Git (if the project has VCS).

PS: Still if it's still there, kindly check the error it is displaying in red and act accordingly. This error is specific to node.js environment.

Answer 2

Cleaning Cache and Node_module are not enough. Follow this steps:

• npm cache clean --force
• delete node_modules folder
• delete package-lock.json file
• npm install

It works for me like this.

Answer 3

I resolve this error running following code

npm cache clean

then delete node_modules directory from my project structure manually or with following command

rm -rf node_modules

After That install dependencies again using

npm install

Answer 4

first i ran:

npm run clean

(even though it came with errors)

Then i deleted the node_modules folder and ran

npm install

This seems to have solved the problem.

Answer 5

I was getting similar error messages on a 16.04 Ubuntu instance with DigitalOcean while running npm run build on an app made with create-react-app (link). I upgraded the instance from 512MB RAM to 1GB ($5/mo to $10/mo) and then the script was able to run.

I post this here to point out that you may get this error due to resource limitations, which I didn't really see explained elsewhere on issue pages and SO answers. And nothing I saw in the error logs pointed me in this direction.

Answer 6

Change access in node_modules directory

chmod -R a+rwx ./node_modules 

Answer 7

This solution is for Windows users.

You can open the node.js installer and give the installer some time to compute space requirements and then click next and click remove. This will remove node.js from your computer and again reopen the installer and install it in this path - C:\Windows\System32

or

Cleaning Cache and Node_module will work. Follow this steps:

• npm cache clean --force
• delete node_modules folder
• delete package-lock.json file
• npm install

Answer 8

Faced this exact problem,

for me it worked by deleting package-lock.json and re-running npm install

If that doesn't resolve it try

1. delete package-lock.json
2. npm cache clean --force
3. npm install
4. npm start

Answer 9

Delete node_modules and package-lock.json, and then run npm install. It worked perfectly here(run command below inside project root):

rm -rf node_modules && rm ./package-lock.json && npm install

Answer 10

I was getting this npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE error while running a build. Clearing the cache and removing the package-lock.json files did not fix it.

In my case there was an Angular build running on a Docker image that was causing this. The root cause turned out to be running the build on Docker in MacOS, which runs the Docker inside a Linux VM, and has by default 2GB memory allocated.

Giving Docker more memory fixed this issue for me. Have to say, the error message could have been quite a bit more clear..

A helpful answer for me was Call retries were exceeded exception while ng build

Answer 11

workaround: Remove the lock file.

rm .\package-lock.json

source: https://github.com/mapbox/node-pre-gyp/issues/298 (floriantraber)

Answer 12

React Application: For me the issue was that after running npm install had some errors.

I've went with the recommendation npm audit fix. This operation broke my package.json and package-lock.json (changed version of packages and and structure of .json).

THE FIX WAS:

• Delete node_modules
• Run npm install
• npm start

Hope this will be helpfull for someone.

Answer 13

npm install --unsafe-perm

worked for me. See https://docs.npmjs.com/. The --unsafe-perm parameter lets you run the scripts from the package instalation as root. The problem in my case was that some depandencies failed to install.

Answer 14

This solution fixed the error in Win10.

Please install globally npm install -g node-pre-gyp

Answer 15

i tried to solve this problem with this way

rm -rf node_modules && rm ./package-lock.json && npm install

But for me its not work. I just restart my machine and its working perfectly.
Am Linux user ,Machine HP.

Answer 16

I just wanted to do run npm run dist to apply some changes for SCSS files, but after hours of suffering, here's what worked for me:

1. npm cache clean --force
2. delete node_modules folder
3. delete package-lock.json file
4. sudo npm install npm@latest -g this will upgrade npm to latest version
5. npm audit fix --force
6. npm upgrade --force
7. npm install

After these I could finally compile SCSS files successfully with npm run dist.

Answer 17

A possibly unexpected cause: you use Create React App with some warnings left unfixed, and the project fails on CI (e.g. GitLab CI/CD):

Treating warnings as errors because process.env.CI = true.
[ ... some warnings here ...]
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1

Solution: fix yo' warnings!

Alternative: use CI=false npm run build

See CRA issue #3657

^{(Ashamed to admit that it just happened to me; did not see it until a colleague pointed it out. Thanks Pascal!)}

Answer 18

I recommend you update your node version to the latest node version recommended by your application or for short update your node version. I encountered this same problem using node version 11.1 but my application was recommending atleast version 10.x.x or 12.x.x I tried all the suggested reply on this thread but non seemed to work for me untill only when i updated my node version to the recommended latest version .i.e. version 12.16.3 then my application ran.

Answer 19

In my case, I actually ran into this error "code ELIFECYCLE" in a Jenkins job. I tried to clean npm cache but it didn't work and also checked the memory of the Jenkins build server which looks okay. Then, I found the compiling of the react project actually failed in Jenkins but not in my local or when manually running the build on the Jenkins build server, and Jenkins also mentioned "Treating warnings as errors because process.env.CI = true". It looks like the warnings in my project cause the error on Jenkins. Therefore, I changed CI to true in the Jenkins job for now. That actually fixed the build error of Jenkins before I cleared those warnings.

Answer 20

Check for port availability as well if you encounter below message :

Error: listen EACCES 127.0.0.1:8080

at Object._errnoException (util.js:999:13)
at _exceptionWithHostPort (util.js:1020:20)
at Server.setupListenHandle [as _listen2] (net.js:1362:19)
at listenInCluster (net.js:1420:12)
at GetAddrInfoReqWrap.doListen [as callback] (net.js:1535:7)
at GetAddrInfoReqWrap.onlookup [as oncomplete] (dns.js:102:10)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1

Answer 21

I'm using ubuntu 18.04 LTS release and I faced the same problem I tried to clean cache as above suggestions but it didn't work for me. However, I found another solution.

echo 65536 | sudo tee -a /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

npm start

I run this command and it started to work

Answer 22

Try to reinstall the cli package globally. In my case, I was trying to test a Vue.js tutorial when I get the same error message. The other thing I did was run the vue command again but this time using webpack-simple and that is why I am not sure wich one solved the problem but now it is working.

Answer 23

I've been bothered by this issue for a long time. For me, the version of node was the problem.

My npm and node were 6.1.0 and 8.11.3, respectively. However, I didn't realize that I had updated my node accidentally to 12.*.*.

It then began to install GCX stuff whenever npm i, which was unnecessary before.

I downgraded my node to 8 and it worked!

Answer 24

The port is probably being used by another application, try listing and see if it's your application:

lsof -i:8080

You can kill the process of this port:

lsof -ti:8080 | xargs kill

Answer 25

I did follow steps, it works:

1.

npm cache clean --force

2. remove the package-lock.json file

3. restart my WebStorm

Answer 26

Usually killall node command fixes mine.

Answer 27

Resolved like this:

# chown -R <user>: node_modules

Answer 28

In my case, I had checked out a different branch with a new library on it. I fixed my issue by only running npm install without doing anything else. I was confused why I was getting ELIFECYCLE error when the port was not being used, but it must have been because I did not have the library installed. So, you might not have to delete node_modules to fix the issue.

Answer 29

Make sure to use the latest npm version while installing packages using npm.

While installing JavaScript, mention the latest version of NodeJS. For example, while installing JavaScript using devtools, use the below code:

devtools i --javascript nodejs:10.15.1

This will download and install the mentioned NodeJS version. This worked for me.

Answer 30

Its weird but it works for me

Go to

control panel -->System and Security--> System --> Advanced System Security--> Environment Variables

In Environment Variable popup you will edit the user variable PATH and add "C:\Windows\System32" value as semicolon separated to the existing value.

Not but not least restart the Machine.