Misleading and unhelpful error if ~/.local is not writeable

[davidc]

Type: Bug Report

Your Environment

david@x:~/flood$ git describe --tags
v4.6.0-7-gf9330ac4
david@x:~/flood$ git rev-parse HEAD
f9330ac404e19bdfaa3287cb1e3f32d34e8af62a
david@x:~/flood$ node --version
v12.21.0
david@x:~/flood$ npm --version
7.5.2
david@x:~/flood$ cat /etc/debian_version
11.0

Completely fresh install from git checkout

Summary

Misleading and unhelpful error if ~/.local is not writeable, it was only through browsing other unrelated bug reports that I thought to check ~/.local.

Expected Behavior

If ~/.local is not writeable, flood should provide a useful indication of the cause of the problem

Current Behavior

david@x:~/flood$ npm start

> [email protected] start
> node --use_strict dist/index.js

Failed to access runtime directory
npm ERR! code 1
npm ERR! path /home/david/flood
npm ERR! command failed
npm ERR! command sh -c node --use_strict dist/index.js

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/david/.npm/_logs/2021-06-21T22_25_53_215Z-debug.log
david@x:~/flood$ cat /home/david/.npm/_logs/2021-06-21T22_25_53_215Z-debug.log
0 verbose cli [ '/usr/bin/node', '/usr/bin/npm', 'start' ]
1 info using [email protected]
2 info using [email protected]
3 timing config:load:defaults Completed in 3ms
4 timing config:load:file:/usr/share/nodejs/npm/npmrc Completed in 4ms
5 timing config:load:builtin Completed in 4ms
6 timing config:load:cli Completed in 2ms
7 timing config:load:env Completed in 1ms
8 timing config:load:file:/home/david/flood/.npmrc Completed in 0ms
9 timing config:load:project Completed in 1ms
10 timing config:load:file:/home/david/.npmrc Completed in 0ms
11 timing config:load:user Completed in 1ms
12 timing config:load:file:/etc/npmrc Completed in 0ms
13 timing config:load:global Completed in 0ms
14 timing config:load:cafile Completed in 1ms
15 timing config:load:validate Completed in 0ms
16 timing config:load:setUserAgent Completed in 1ms
17 timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 1ms
18 timing config:load Completed in 15ms
19 verbose npm-session xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
20 timing npm:load Completed in 31ms
21 timing command:run-script Completed in 544ms
22 timing command:start Completed in 550ms
23 verbose stack Error: command failed
23 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/usr/share/nodejs/@npmcli/promise-spawn/index.js:64:27)
23 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:314:20)
23 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:1022:16)
23 verbose stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:287:5)
24 verbose pkgid [email protected]
25 verbose cwd /home/david/flood
26 verbose Linux 5.10.0-7-amd64
27 verbose argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "start"
28 verbose node v12.21.0
29 verbose npm  v7.5.2
30 error code 1
31 error path /home/david/flood
32 error command failed
33 error command sh -c node --use_strict dist/index.js
34 verbose exit 1

Possible Solution

Steps to Reproduce

Make ~/.local not writeable by the user.

Context

[jesec]

I think the message is clear. I would welcome a PR if it is possible to make it even more user-friendly.

the extra logs come from npm, and I have no control over them.

(regular users are not supposed to use npm start. if you use it, you are probably compiling from sources, and it should not be hard for you to grep -r "runtime directory" .)

[davidc]

The error says "Failed to access runtime directory", it doesn't say "directory isn't writeable". Furthermore the only directory it mentions is /home/david/flood - the actual directory /home/david/.local it is complaining about is not mentioned anywhere.

At any rate I have resolved the issue and was just reporting it as a courtesy so it doesn't waste anyone else's time/cause support requests.

[davidc]

-  console.error('Failed to access runtime directory');
+  console.error('Failed to write to runtime directory' + argv.rundir);

would make all the difference