Build fails with "An output directory must be specified when compiling a directory"

The issue at hand is running a build of Bootstrap after installing it as an npm package. Most of the verification queries (below) are not applicable. There appears to be a bug in the build process.

OS: macOS 10.11.6 … Node.js 8.9.1

I have an Express app, and have installed Bootstrap as a package.json dependency. I want to produce a modified Bootstrap build and at the moment have made zero modifications.

$ (cd node_modules/bootstrap/; npm install)

This gets the dependencies installed in the Bootstrap package. This took a long time to run.

$ (cd node_modules/bootstrap/; npm run dist)

This attempts to build Bootstrap. The build proceeds fine until this step:

> bootstrap@4.0.0-beta.2 css-compile-docs /Volumes/Drobo5N/drb142101a00015/1/David/NodeWebDevelopment/book-rev4/code/chap06/notes/node_modules/bootstrap
> node-sass --output-style expanded --source-map true --source-map-contents true --precision 6 assets/scss/docs.scss assets/css/docs.min.css

An output directory must be specified when compiling a directory
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! bootstrap@4.0.0-beta.2 css-compile-docs: `node-sass --output-style expanded --source-map true --source-map-contents true --precision 6 assets/scss/docs.scss assets/css/docs.min.css`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the bootstrap@4.0.0-beta.2 css-compile-docs script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

It appears from the error message that node-sass wants a -o directory option. HOWEVER, the command line is not trying to compile a directory, instead it lists an input file and an output file.

In other words, I suspect an error in using the node-sass command in the package.json scripts …?

Your Verification questions

Before opening an issue:

• Search for duplicate or closed issues
• Validate and lint any HTML to avoid common problems
• Prepare a reduced test case for any bugs
• Read the contributing guidelines

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• Browser and version (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE, MS Edge, Opera 15+, Android Browser)
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When suggesting a feature, include:

• As much detail as possible for what we should add and why it’s important to Bootstrap
• Relevant links to prior art, screenshots, or live demos whenever possible

[wolfy1339]

How-to questions are to be posted on Stack overflow. As this problem doesn’t happen on vanilla bootstrap, it is invalid

[wolfy1339]

The build tools only work properly from a git clone or tarball.