npm global install return and access error (EACCES error) asking for sudo command in order to install global packages, this happens due to the fact that permissions has been wrong setup.

this article applies for macOS ans ZSH users.

npm default directory

The default directory for npm is /usr/local/ you can check in your terminal

  npm config get prefix
  # it should return /usr/local

node_modules permissions check

To check the permissions for node_modules use the following command:

  ls -la /usr/local/lib/node_modules
  # you should get something like this:

  # total 0
  # drwxr-xr-x   4 root  128 ...
  # drwxr-xr-x   4 root  128 ...
  # drwxr-xr-x   7 root  128 ... corepack
  # drwxr-xr-x  13 root  128 ... npm

this means that the only user that can read and write under the folder is root that’s why you need to use the sudo command.

But you can install npm packages without sudo command by changing the default directory to a different one

Change npm directory

Before change the current directory we need to create a new one under the home directory:

go to your home directory and to double check in which directory you are, use the command

  pwd
  # return: /Users/cesargomez (home directory)

create a new folder insode the home directory and you can named as you preffer, i will named as npm-global

  mkdir npm-global

move to the new npm-global folder by using

  cd npm-global

setup the new directory to be the npm directory with the following command:

  npm config set prefix /Users/user/new_folder

  # example: npm config set prefix /User/cesargomez/npm-global

now we need to update the system $PATH in this case the zsh Path, so from you home directory open your zsh preferences with VScode

  code ~/.zshrc

and modifie the like that start with export PATH = … with you new path and add /bin:$PATH at the end like this

  export PATH=/Users/your_user/your_new_directory/bin:$PATH

the we need to update the zsh variables by typing:

  source ~/.zshrc

this will fix you permissions setup, now you will be able to install npm global packages without having to use the sudo command.