electron-packager encounters error during prune with npm 5.3.0

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• I agree to follow the code of conduct that this project follows, as appropriate.
• I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Please describe your issue:

Console output when you run electron-packager. Please include the stack trace if one exists.

Encountered error while building
  { Error: Command failed: npm prune --production
npm ERR! May not delete: /private/var/folders/v1/901xmbvx413g7vfw031f7f300000gp/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/myapp-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/.bin

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/igerges/.npm/_logs/2017-07-18T20_54_00_332Z-debug.log

    at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:270:12)
    at emitTwo (events.js:125:13)
    at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:213:7)
    at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:897:16)
    at Socket.stream.socket.on (internal/child_process.js:340:11)
    at emitOne (events.js:115:13)
    at Socket.emit (events.js:210:7)
    at Pipe._handle.close [as _onclose] (net.js:548:12)
  killed: false,
  code: 1,
  signal: null,
  cmd: 'npm prune --production' }

What command line arguments are you passing? Alternatively, if you are using the API, what parameters are you passing to the packager() function?

{
prune: true
}

Please provide either a failing minimal testcase (with a link to the code) or detailed steps to reproduce your problem. Using electron-quick-start is a good starting point.

App build consistently fails with the above error after

npm install -g npm

but works consistently if downgraded to

npm install -g npm@5.2.0

[joshuapinter]

For ease of others landing here, this was fixed in npm 5.4.0 so just update your npm with:

npm update -g npm

And you should be good to go.

[malept]

A workaround is to set packageManager: false in the Packager API, or --no-package-manager with the Packager CLI.