Bash script not handling npm commands correctly

Question

I have a script that runs some git and npm commands based on a user like

#!/bin/sh
/bin/su someuser -c "
cd /opt/app1/;
env -i git remote update;
env -i git pull origin dev;
cd /opt/app1/client/;
npm run build;
"

The git commands run correctly. The npm command runs and builds the files but throws lots of errors about

Node Sass could not find a binding for your current environment: Linux 64-bit with Node.js 8.x

Found bindings for the following environments:
  - Linux 64-bit with Node.js 9.x

This usually happens because your environment has changed since running `npm install`.
Run `npm rebuild node-sass --force` to build the binding for your current environment.

If I run npm run build as the user from terminal, everything builds fine. I even tried env -i npm run build in the script and that just says env: ‘npm’: No such file or directory. So i then tried env -i /usr/local/bin/npm run build and oddly that returned /usr/bin/env: 'node': No such file or directory.

I though that the user -c would set me up with all env like the user was logged in and that env -i would give me clean env without the parent.

also tried:

#!/bin/sh
/bin/su someuser - -c "
cd /opt/app1/;
git remote update;
git pull origin dev;
cd /opt/app1/client/;
npm run build;
"

That last attempt returns same as first: git commands work, build throws errors about sass and environment as if something is different than when i run the command as the user from the terminal.

Any idea why this command is not working correctly?

Answer 1

env -i cleans the environment, and that includes the PATH variable, which is used to look up commands if you don't give the full path. So, with env -i, you need to specify the full path to commands being invoked. With npm, what probably happens is that npm itself is a script which has #! /usr/bin/env node as the shebang, so the lookup for the node command fails.

If you need to clean the environment, try either of:

• sudo -iu someuser sh -c "...."
• su someuser - -c "...." (both these commands start login shells with some cleaning of the environment)

• or, with env, retain some environment variables, like the Ubuntu service command does:

  $ grep env $(command -v service) -m1
  out=$(env -i LANG="$LANG" LANGUAGE="$LANGUAGE" LC_CTYPE="$LC_CTYPE" LC_NUMERIC="$LC_NUMERIC" LC_TIME="$LC_TIME" LC_COLLATE="$LC_COLLATE" LC_MONETARY="$LC_MONETARY" LC_MESSAGES="$LC_MESSAGES" LC_PAPER="$LC_PAPER" LC_NAME="$LC_NAME" LC_ADDRESS="$LC_ADDRESS" LC_TELEPHONE="$LC_TELEPHONE" LC_MEASUREMENT="$LC_MEASUREMENT" LC_IDENTIFICATION="$LC_IDENTIFICATION" LC_ALL="$LC_ALL" PATH="$PATH" TERM="$TERM" "$SERVICEDIR/$SERVICE" status 2>&1)
  

  You probably don't need all those, but keep $PATH, $TERM, and maybe set LC_ALL=C.

Answer 2

Per Olorin's suggestion to look at the node error, I explored that more. Despite the fact that node -v for someuser was returning v9.4.0 and the locate command not finding any v8 versions installed for any user, and having re-installed node, i was still getting the same error. The following command works. Note the source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh;

#!/bin/sh  
/bin/su tstapps -c "
cd /opt/app1/;
git remote update;
git pull origin dev;
cd /opt/app1/client/;
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh;
npm run build;

At one point I had nvm use v9.5.0 and then tested it still works without it. Next I removed source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh; and it was broken again. So apparently the nvm isn't available in shell-scripts env without sourcing it and the npm run build needs to see nvm.

Strange issue and looks like some users ran into similar issues with using nvm resources in bash based on this thread. Still not sure where it was getting the v8 from. Unless it was getting v8 from the include/node directory of v9 installations. Example:

/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8-platform.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8-profiler.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8-testing.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8-util.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8-value-serializer-version.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8-version-string.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8-version.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8.h
/home/someuser/.nvm/versions/node/v9.5.0/include/node/v8config.h