Palette update problem

What are the steps to reproduce?

Open “Manage palette” and press “update to x.x.x” for update palette

What happens?

I have install NodeRED 1.0.3 as root (with official script…y, y, N) After update to 1.0.4 the update from “Manage palette” stop working Updates fail for uncorrect user permission and if I restart NodeRED the palette is not already install. This is the result log:

-----------------------------------------------------------
2020-04-10T08:40:15.852Z Install : node-red-contrib-modbus 5.9.0

2020-04-10T08:40:16.619Z npm install --no-audit --no-update-notifier --save --save-prefix="~" --production node-red-contrib-modbus@5.9.0
2020-04-10T08:40:48.054Z [out] 
2020-04-10T08:40:48.054Z [out] > node-red-contrib-modbus@5.9.0 postinstall /root/.node-red/node_modules/node-red-contrib-modbus
2020-04-10T08:40:48.054Z [out] > node ./supporter.js
2020-04-10T08:40:48.054Z [out] 
2020-04-10T08:40:50.087Z [err] npm
2020-04-10T08:40:50.088Z [err]  WARN node-red-project@0.0.1 No repository field.
2020-04-10T08:40:50.088Z [err] npm WARN node-red-project@0.0.1 No license field.
2020-04-10T08:40:50.089Z [err] 
2020-04-10T08:40:50.202Z [err] npm
2020-04-10T08:40:50.203Z [err]  ERR! code EUIDLOOKUP
2020-04-10T08:40:50.203Z [err] npm ERR! lifecycle User identifier does not exist: rootcd
2020-04-10T08:40:50.204Z [err] npm ERR! 
2020-04-10T08:40:50.204Z [err] npm ERR!
2020-04-10T08:40:50.204Z [err]  Failed to look up the user/group for running scripts.
2020-04-10T08:40:50.204Z [err] npm ERR! 
2020-04-10T08:40:50.204Z [err] npm
2020-04-10T08:40:50.204Z [err]  ERR! Try again with a different --user or --group settings, or
2020-04-10T08:40:50.204Z [err] npm ERR!
2020-04-10T08:40:50.205Z [err]  run with --unsafe-perm to execute scripts as root.
2020-04-10T08:40:50.278Z [err] 
2020-04-10T08:40:50.279Z [err] npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
2020-04-10T08:40:50.279Z [err] npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2020-04-10T08_40_50_235Z-debug.log
2020-04-10T08:40:50.307Z rc=1

-----------------------------------------------------------
2020-04-10T08:42:38.969Z Install : node-red-contrib-simpletime 2.9.1

2020-04-10T08:42:39.717Z npm install --no-audit --no-update-notifier --save --save-prefix="~" --production node-red-contrib-simpletime@2.9.1
2020-04-10T08:43:04.221Z [out] 
2020-04-10T08:43:04.221Z [out] > node-red-contrib-modbus@5.8.0 postinstall /root/.node-red/node_modules/node-red-contrib-modbus
2020-04-10T08:43:04.221Z [out] > node ./supporter.js
2020-04-10T08:43:04.221Z [out] 
2020-04-10T08:43:06.338Z [err] npm
2020-04-10T08:43:06.339Z [err]  WARN node-red-project@0.0.1 No repository field.
2020-04-10T08:43:06.339Z [err] npm 
2020-04-10T08:43:06.339Z [err] WARN node-red-project@0.0.1 No license field.
2020-04-10T08:43:06.340Z [err] 
2020-04-10T08:43:06.373Z [err] npm
2020-04-10T08:43:06.373Z [err]  ERR! code EUIDLOOKUP
2020-04-10T08:43:06.374Z [err] npm
2020-04-10T08:43:06.374Z [err]  ERR! lifecycle User identifier does not exist: rootcd
2020-04-10T08:43:06.374Z [err] npm ERR!
2020-04-10T08:43:06.375Z [err]  
2020-04-10T08:43:06.375Z [err] npm ERR!
2020-04-10T08:43:06.375Z [err]  Failed to look up the user/group for running scripts.
2020-04-10T08:43:06.375Z [err] npm ERR!
2020-04-10T08:43:06.375Z [err]  
2020-04-10T08:43:06.375Z [err] npm ERR!
2020-04-10T08:43:06.376Z [err]  Try again with a different --user or --group settings, or
2020-04-10T08:43:06.376Z [err] npm ERR! run with --unsafe-perm to execute scripts as root.
2020-04-10T08:43:06.420Z [err] 
2020-04-10T08:43:06.420Z [err] npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
2020-04-10T08:43:06.420Z [err] npm ERR!
2020-04-10T08:43:06.421Z [err]      /root/.npm/_logs/2020-04-10T08_43_06_399Z-debug.log
2020-04-10T08:43:06.446Z rc=1

What do you expect to happen?

Update as normal

Please tell us about your environment:

• Node-RED version: 1.0.5
• Node.js version: 12.16.2
• npm version: 6.14.4
• Platform/OS: Armbian buster 20.02.1
• Browser: Firefox 75.0 (Win)

[dceejay]

That is the setting option for npm . As we said running as root is not recommended for the majority of users, and running it that way can cause issues. I’m going to close the issue here as we can look to mitigate this in the install script for linux users, rather than have the core need to care about user privileges.

[dceejay]

if you are running as root then probably yes…

npm config set unsafe-perm true

then restart and retry the update.