command not found: gulp

[Disclaimer] This article is just for my personal reference as I tend to quickly forget things…

So I cloned a project:

➜ Desktop git clone https://github.com/HackerThemes/theme-kit.git
➜ Desktop cd theme-kit

Installed the project dependencies:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) npm i

The project suggested to run gulp watch, issued the command and encountered the first issue:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp watch
zsh: command not found: gulp

Obviously this also won’t work:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp -v
zsh: command not found: gulp

Tried to install gulp-cli globally and failed with the following error:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ npm install gulp-cli -g
npm WARN checkPermissions Missing write access to /usr/local/lib/node_modules
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR! syscall access
npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied, access ‘/usr/local/lib/node_modules’
npm ERR! { Error: EACCES: permission denied, access ‘/usr/local/lib/node_modules’
npm ERR! stack: ‘Error: EACCES: permission denied, access \’/usr/local/lib/node_modules\’’,
npm ERR! errno: -13,
npm ERR! code: ‘EACCES’,
npm ERR! syscall: ‘access’,
npm ERR! path: ‘/usr/local/lib/node_modules’ }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/sam/.npm/_logs/2019–03–02T18_41_46_883Z-debug.log

So I switched to nvm:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ export NVM_DIR=”$HOME/.nvm”
[ -s “$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh” ] && \. “$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh”
➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ nvm — version
0.33.8

And now checking gulp version worked:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp -v
[19:43:16] CLI version 3.9.1
[19:43:16] Local version 4.0.0

However, gulp watch was still throwing an error:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp watch
/Users/sam/Desktop/theme-kit/node_modules/node-sass/lib/binding.js:15
throw new Error(errors.missingBinary());
^
Error: Missing binding /Users/sam/Desktop/theme-kit/node_modules/node-sass/vendor/darwin-x64–59/binding.node
Node Sass could not find a binding for your current environment: OS X 64-bit with Node.js 9.x
Found bindings for the following environments:
- OS X 64-bit with Node.js 8.x
This usually happens because your environment has changed since running `npm install`.
Run `npm rebuild node-sass` to download the binding for your current environment.
at module.exports (/Users/sam/Desktop/theme-kit/node_modules/node-sass/lib/binding.js:15:13)
at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/sam/Desktop/theme-kit/node_modules/node-sass/lib/index.js:14:35)
at Module._compile (module.js:649:30)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:660:10)
at Module.load (module.js:561:32)
at tryModuleLoad (module.js:501:12)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:493:3)
at Module.require (module.js:593:17)
at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/sam/Desktop/theme-kit/node_modules/gulp-sass/index.js:162:21)

Okay, so I rebuilt the node-sass as suggested by the error output above:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ npm rebuild node-sass

So finally, I was thinking, gulp watch should run, but nope, it threw another error:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp watch
[19:44:04] Using gulpfile ~/Desktop/theme-kit/gulpfile.js
/Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/lib/node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js:129
gulpInst.start.apply(gulpInst, toRun);
^
TypeError: Cannot read property ‘apply’ of undefined
at /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/lib/node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js:129:20
at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:112:11)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:692:11)
at startup (bootstrap_node.js:194:16)
at bootstrap_node.js:666:3

Now I have no idea what this error is about, looks like something is wrong with gulp.js or something :D

Let’s start beating around the bush, and go through all the uninstall/install trials…

Before uninstalling, checking the gulp version again:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp -v
[19:54:47] CLI version 3.9.1
[19:54:47] Local version 4.0.0

Oki, looks like the gulp command works.

Now, globally uninstalled gulp:

➜  theme-kit git:(master) ✗ npm uninstall gulp -g
removed 270 packages in 1.712s

And uninstall gulp, gulp-cli project dependencies:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ npm uninstall gulp
npm WARN rm not removing /Users/sam/Desktop/theme-kit/node_modules/.bin/gulp as it wasn’t installed by /Users/sam/Desktop/theme-kit/node_modules/gulp
removed 60 packages and audited 4164 packages in 4.006s
found 0 vulnerabilities
➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ npm uninstall gulp-cli
removed 144 packages and audited 1137 packages in 3.251s
found 0 vulnerabilities

Check the version (gulp command shouldn’t work):

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp -v
zsh: command not found: gulp

And guess what, I forgot to uninstall gulp-cli globally…

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ npm install -g gulp-cli
/Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/bin/gulp -> /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/lib/node_modules/gulp-cli/bin/gulp.js
npm ERR! path /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/share/man/man1/gulp.1
npm ERR! code EEXIST
npm ERR! Refusing to delete /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/share/man/man1/gulp.1: ../../../lib/node_modules/gulp/gulp.1 symlink target is not controlled by npm /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/share/man/man1
npm ERR! File exists: /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/share/man/man1/gulp.1
npm ERR! Move it away, and try again.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/sam/.npm/_logs/2019–03–02T19_06_22_419Z-debug.log
➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp watch
zsh: command not found: gulp

Now pay attention to the above npm ERR! and remove the gulp.1 file:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ rm /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/share/man/man1/gulp.1

Finally, install gulp-cli globally:

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ npm install -g gulp-cli
/Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/bin/gulp -> /Users/sam/.nvm/versions/node/v9.8.0/lib/node_modules/gulp-cli/bin/gulp.js
+ gulp-cli@2.0.1
added 234 packages from 154 contributors in 4.738s
➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp -v
[20:11:14] CLI version 2.0.1
[20:11:14] Local version 4.0.0

And it works…

➜ theme-kit git:(master) ✗ gulp watch
[20:11:29] Using gulpfile ~/Desktop/theme-kit/gulpfile.js
[20:11:29] Starting ‘watch’…
[20:11:29] Starting ‘buildCss’…
[20:11:30] Finished ‘buildCss’ after 1.82 s
[20:11:30] Starting ‘watcher’…

The morals of the story, I should have first checked the official documentation and initially installed the gulp-cli globally… :D