239
votes

I'm trying to run npm install, this is output from console:

npm ERR! Linux 4.8.0-27-generic
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v6.9.1
npm ERR! npm  v3.10.8

npm ERR! Maximum call stack size exceeded
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

and this is content of npm-debug.log:

113791 verbose stack RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
113791 verbose stack     at Object.color (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/node_modules/console-control-strings/index.js:115:32)
113791 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.log._format (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/log.js:252:51)
113791 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/log.js:138:24)
113791 verbose stack     at emitThree (events.js:116:13)
113791 verbose stack     at emit (events.js:194:7)
113791 verbose stack     at .<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/node_modules/are-we-there-yet/tracker-group.js:23:18)
113791 verbose stack     at emitThree (events.js:116:13)
113791 verbose stack     at emit (events.js:194:7)
113791 verbose stack     at .<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/node_modules/are-we-there-yet/tracker-group.js:23:18)
113791 verbose stack     at emitThree (events.js:116:13)
113791 verbose stack     at emit (events.js:194:7)
113792 verbose cwd /home/giorgi/AdMove/dev/web-advertiser-admove
113793 error Linux 4.8.0-27-generic
113794 error argv "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install"
113795 error node v6.9.1
113796 error npm  v3.10.8
113797 error Maximum call stack size exceeded
113798 error If you need help, you may report this error at:
113798 error     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
113799 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Removed node_modules several times and tried to reinstall. Can't understand what's the reason that causes this and how to fix it.

30
First of all, I'd check the github issues link for similar problems, and add it if it's not a known problem. Also, why are you trying to install v4.2.6? The current latest build is v7.1.0, and the recommended stable build is v6.9.1. Clear everything out, try 6.9.1, and update the question. - TheEnvironmentalist
Updated to v6.9.1 still got same error and updated question also. Thanks anyway TheEnvironmentalist - GROX13
im my case, this was caused due to a recursive declaraion in package.json ;) - Alberto S.
in my case, it was caused because I had lost internet connection - RayJ_inSJ

30 Answers

147
votes

metzelder's answer helped me fix the issue. however if you run the command npm cache clean, it will give you a message

As of npm@5, the npm cache self-heals from corruption issues and data extracted from the cache is guaranteed to be valid

So, as of npm5 you can do by adding a --force flag to the command.

So the command is:

npm cache clean --force
123
votes

npm rebuild it has solved my problem

74
votes

Try removing package-lock.json and the node_modules folder:

rm package-lock.json
rm -r node_modules
22
votes

I had the same issue with npm install. After a lot of search, I found out that removing your .npmrc file or its content (found at %USERPROFILE%/.npmrc), will solve this issue. This worked for me.

22
votes
npm uninstall

npm cache clean --force

I tried these two methods but they didn't work. After, I deleted the node_modules directory and ran npm install again, it still didn't work. Lastly, I deleted package-lock.json and created a new package-lock.json file using

npm install
15
votes

I have overcome this issue by doing following:

  • Delete all the content of the npm dependencies. You can find the default install location according to this thread: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5926706/1850297

  • Before you run npm install command, I suggest to run npm cache clean --force

13
votes

npm rebuild will work for sure

12
votes

In my case, update to the newest version:

npm install -g npm

10
votes

I deleted

node_modules

and then reinstalled by

npm install

It worked for me

7
votes

I have also faced the same problem and this is how i resolved it.

  1. First of all you need to make sure that your node and npm versions are up to date. if not please upgrade your node and npm packages to latest versions.

    nvm install 12.18.3 // update node version through node version manager
    
    npm install npm // update your npm version to latest
    
  2. Delete your node_modules folder and package-lock.json file.

  3. Force clean the entire NPM cache by using following comand.

    npm cache clean --force
    
  4. Re-Install all the dependencies.

    npm install
    
  5. If above step didn't resolve your problem, try to re-install your dependencies after executing following command.

    npm rebuild
    
6
votes

This issue can also happen if you're trying to install a package that doesn't exist or if you're trying to install a version that doesn't exist.

5
votes

npm cache clean returns below message

As of npm@5, the npm cache self-heals from corruption issues and data extracted from the cache is guaranteed to be valid. If you want to make sure everything is consistent, use 'npm cache verify' instead. On the other hand, if you're debugging an issue with the installer, you can use npm install --cache /tmp/empty-cache to use a temporary cache instead of nuking the actual one.

If you run npm cache verify, as specified above, then it actually runs cache verification and garbage collection which fixes the problem.

Cache verified and compressed (~\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache_cacache): Content verified: 6183 (447214684 bytes) Content garbage-collected: 16 (653745 bytes) Index entries: 9633

4
votes

Happened in docker (node:15-buster) for me.

Remember to use WORKDIR /<folder> so that it doesn't conflict with original npm libraries installed.

The folder can be anything but system folders, so that includes using /.

3
votes

I'm not a Windows user, so if you are, try to check Rene Knop comment.

For Unix/OSX users, I've removed the root .npmrc file ~/.npmrc.
Before you're going to try it, please, check if there is nothing necessary over there you can use this command to bring all content into your terminal: cat ~/.npmrc .

If you have got something like:

cat: /Users/$USER/.npmrc: No such file or directory

to save a copy:

cp ~/.npmrc ~/.npmrc_copy

Now, try to remove it (Works for bash users: Unix / Ubuntu / OSX ...):

rm -f ~/.npmrc

This worked for me.
Hope this will be helpful for others.

2
votes

You uninstall npm package and force clean the cache and close terminal and reinstall whichever package be.

$sudo npm uninstall <package - name>
$sudo npm cache clean --force

Then restart terminal and check

Still not working upgrade both npm and node to the latest version

2
votes

I also had the same problem. I had tried the previous solutions, but the solution for me was much simpler. I only had to remove the space in the directory and then run npm i again

Thanks to: https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/issues/809#issuecomment-155019383 for pointing this out.

2
votes

In case none of these answer work for you, it may be because the terminal you're using isn't the right one/ your node_modules is used by another part of your computer.

In my case I kept juggling between this error (maximum call stack size exceeded) and the access error event when I did a sudo npm i.

The fix was to close my IDE (which was WebStorm), run npm i in a basic terminal, and that was it.

1
votes

I tried everything to fix this issue on my Mac. I think the issue started when I had already downloaded npm from Node.js and then reinstalled it with Homebrew while following along with a Team Treehouse video.

Here's what I tried:

From https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/removing-npm

sudo npm uninstall npm -g
sudo make uninstall
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/npm*

From How do I completely uninstall Node.js, and reinstall from beginning (Mac OS X)

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/{npm*,node*,man1/node*}

Here's what worked:

In the end, the only thing that worked for me was to clone down the npm-reinstall repo from GitHub that completely removed everything related to npm on my Mac.

https://github.com/brock/node-reinstall

I then had to reinstall node and npm from Node.js.

1
votes

I tried everything to fix this issue on my windows 7 machine like

Reinstalling and rebuilding npm

At last, I fixed this small configuration setting issue by wasting my entire day.

How I resolved this issue

Removing my project specific configurations in global .npmrc at location like drive:/Windows/Users/../.npmrc

1
votes

I solved it 100% I had this problem with gulp version: 3.5.6.

You should clean the package-lock.js and then run npm install and It worked form

1
votes

Our company dev environment uses Artifactory as the default registry for our NPM dependencies, and when running npm install it was defaulting to this, which did not work... so manually specifying the main npm registry via npm install --registry https://registry.npmjs.org fixed this issue for me...

1
votes

I was facing the same error, I was trying to install jest into to one of the packages in a monorepo project.

If you are using Yarn + Learna to package a monorepo project, you will have to navigate to the package.json inside the target package and then run npm install or npm install <package name>.

1
votes

In general, once a module has been installed, it's much more convenient to use npm ci instead of npm install. Please check out this SO answer for the advantages of the former with respect to the later in a production environment. So please just run

npm ci

All dependencies will be updated, and the problem will disappear. Or it will error in the case there's some grave de-synchronization between one and the other.

1
votes

Most of the times, this issue occurs if you are using the system provided by the organization you work for and it's vpn restricts the use of this command. In this case, you may try to disconnect from organization vpn and then execute this command.

0
votes

I had this problem and it was due to an upgrade of my git executable. I rolled back to Git-2.21.0.rc1.windows.1-64-bit and added this to my environment path and it fixed my issue.

0
votes

The one thing that finally worked for me on Mac was upgrading from node 8.12 to 10.x using NVM.

I uninstalled all other versions of Node with NVM, then installed 10.x, then ran nvm alias default node, which tells NVM to always default to the latest available node version on a shell.

After that, my live reloading issue went away!

0
votes

Switching to yarn solved the issue for me.

0
votes

For those having this issue when building a Docker image with Jenkins (or any CI), make sure the package-lock.json is also copied to the container.

COPY ./src/package*.json /home/node/
RUN npm install

For us, the install actually went fine, the error only occurred when running npm prune production for the production image.

0
votes

If your default npm registry is something other than the public npm repository (you can check this by going to your .npmrc file or checking your npm config via npm CLI commands), you could try unsetting the registry config so it points back to the public npm repository. Then run npm install again.

If you have dependencies that aren't available in the public npm repository, try temporarily removing those dependencies from package.json. This will allow you to run npm install. Finally, revert the dependencies and registry config you removed and run npm install one last time to install the rest of your dependencies.

0
votes

Today we encountered this error when running an npm prune even after running an npm cache clean --force.

Versions:

node 13.8.0 
npm 6.13.6

Deleting the package-lock.json worked for this case as well. Thank you all!