Bower Installation Errors - macos

Question

Now I have installed Node and Npm and I run this command in terminal (yes I am on a mac):
npm install -g bower
Which follows with this output from the terminal:
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/bower
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/bower
npm ERR! Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower'
npm ERR! { [Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower']
npm ERR! errno: 3,
npm ERR! code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR! path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower',
npm ERR! fstream_type: 'Directory',
npm ERR! fstream_path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower',
npm ERR! fstream_class: 'DirWriter',
npm ERR! fstream_stack:
npm ERR! [ '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23',
npm ERR! '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53',
npm ERR! 'Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)' ] }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! System Darwin 13.0.0
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "-g" "bower"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/Superfunnytogo
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.25
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.24
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower
npm ERR! fstream_path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower
npm ERR! fstream_type Directory
npm ERR! fstream_class DirWriter
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno 3
npm ERR! stack Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower'
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/Superfunnytogo/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0
Device-365-352:~ Superfunnytogo$ npm install -g bower
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/bower
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/bower
npm ERR! Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower'
npm ERR! { [Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower']
npm ERR! errno: 3,
npm ERR! code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR! path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower',
npm ERR! fstream_type: 'Directory',
npm ERR! fstream_path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower',
npm ERR! fstream_class: 'DirWriter',
npm ERR! fstream_stack:
npm ERR! [ '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23',
npm ERR! '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53',
npm ERR! 'Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)' ] }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! System Darwin 13.0.0
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "-g" "bower"
npm ERR! cwd /Users/Superfunnytogo
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.25
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.24
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower
npm ERR! fstream_path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower
npm ERR! fstream_type Directory
npm ERR! fstream_class DirWriter
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno 3
npm ERR! stack Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower'
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23
npm ERR! fstream_stack /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:37:53
npm ERR! fstream_stack Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/Superfunnytogo/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

Answer 1

You need root access or permissions to install globally! Try :
sudo npm install -g bower

Answer 2

Much better than using sudo is setting a user level prefix. For example in ~/.npmrc set:
prefix = ${HOME}/npm-global
to use this folder for packages installed with -g.
Then you also need to set your PATH environment variable to include ${HOME}/npm-global/bin.

Answer 3

you shouldn't sudo bower right? I mean sudo npm install -g bower will work BUT here's the message I got:
Additional error details:
Since bower is a user command, there is no need to execute it with superuser permissions.
If you're having permission errors when using bower without sudo, please spend a few minutes learning more about how your system should work and make any necessary repairs.
http://www.joyent.com/blog/installing-node-and-npm
https://gist.github.com/isaacs/579814
You can however run a command with sudo using --allow-root option

Answer 4

If you've installed node/npm via Homebrew on OSX you may want to first run brew doctor and follow instructions before sudo-ing any system folders. In my case this brought up a nag about agreeing to an Xcode/iOS license:
Builds will fail! Agree to the license by opening Xcode.app or running:
xcodebuild -license
After doing that and running a brew update I was able to install Bower globally as expected.

Answer 5

I know that it's an old thread but I run into the issue recently after reinstalling Yosemite and xCode tools. In case anyone else gets stuck, what helped me was using the commands:
sudo chown -R $USER:$GROUP ~/.npm
sudo chown -R $USER:$GROUP ~/.config
Following suggestion from the thread below:
https://github.com/bower/bower/issues/2262

Answer 6

Using sudo with npm is discouraged.
Look here https://stackoverflow.com/a/18277225/1857521 for a better solution to an almost identical problem.