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alias node for sudoers #43

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@mpotra

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@mpotra

When sudoing node, 'command not found' is issued, because on most systems PATH is reset on sudo, for security reasons.
This makes 'sudo node' not work anymore.

Simply adding the following line at the end of the nvm.sh script, would fix it:

alias node='$NVM_BIN/node'
//possibly adding an alias for npm as well?

This assumes .bashrc for user contains these 3 lines:

. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

enable aliases in sudo

alias sudo='sudo '

Activity

creationix

creationix commented on Jul 1, 2011

@creationix
Collaborator

Very neat idea. I don't want to add it to my nvm repo since it's a little invasive, but it's not hard for someone who wants to customize their environment.

I usually just source the nvm.sh file as root after running "sudo su" or modify root's .bashrc. I want more than just node when I run sudo and this way I get everything in the $NVM_BIN folder.

mpotra

mpotra commented on Jul 2, 2011

@mpotra
Author

You are right, it might be a bit invasive and probably shouldn't be active in the release, but maybe just have it posted here or somewhere in future docs, so that people could find it easy.
Or maybe it might be better to have it in the script, but commented out, and people who need it, would just uncomment it - just a thought.

It took me a bit to figure this out, so probably this could save some time for others.

Modifying root's bashrc wasn't an option for my case, since we had a set-up with several users, each with its own node/nvm, and wanted to allow quick running through sudo (sudo node app_name), where necessary.
Including nvm.sh or the path/s in root's .bashrc would allow only for one single setup to run through sudo.

euskode

euskode commented on Mar 30, 2012

@euskode

This is fantastic, I made the changes and it works like a charm.

What if I wanted to do something like sudo ENV1=val1 ENV2=val2 node server.js?

I am able to do that with other tools (I remember that forever never had an issue with it), however in my nvm-ized environment, I get sudo: node: command not found.

Any help would be much appreciated!

zakdances

zakdances commented on Sep 20, 2012

@zakdances

Does "nvm install" need sudo to run error-free?

creationix

creationix commented on Sep 20, 2012

@creationix
Collaborator

@zakdances no, nvm installs node into a local folder inside your git clone of the nvm repo. Unless your user doesn't have write access to your own clone, then it should work fine without sudo. In fact, using sudo can break things since it creates files as the root user.

casio

casio commented on Sep 25, 2012

@casio

Hm, just stumbled upon this one when trying to install grunt globally.

Like @mpotra suggested, I had to also alias npm like so:
alias node='$NVM_BIN/node'
alias npm='$NVM_BIN/npm'

So that means that not a single node package intended for global availablity can be installed when using nvm by default, right? That should make quite some users having this scenario, I imagine.

How about inventing a special nvm mode so the aliases only get activated when users explicitly enter that mode?
When they leave the mode again, the aliases could get disabled.

jcollum-hcg

jcollum-hcg commented on Jul 19, 2013

@jcollum-hcg

This seems common enough that it should be added to the readme.

darethas

darethas commented on Aug 12, 2013

@darethas

Yes, needing sudo on *nix systtems is very common.

As a suggestion, you could try a solution similar to what ruby version manager does http://rvm.io/integration/sudo

jcollum-hcg

jcollum-hcg commented on Aug 12, 2013

@jcollum-hcg

I was just told in the git mailing list that you should only very rarely use sudo. But I see it all the time. Too many opinions about it.

tjwebb

tjwebb commented on Dec 14, 2013

@tjwebb

Using sudo to install node is perfectly reasonable and common. Running node itself as root is frowned upon. Unfortunately nvm makes this very difficult.

tjwebb

tjwebb commented on Dec 14, 2013

@tjwebb

If anyone is looking for an easy way to install nvm globally: https://github.com/xtuple/nvm

koenpunt

koenpunt commented on Dec 15, 2013

@koenpunt
Contributor

There is no need to install node with sudo once you give the nvm directory the right permissions.
For example:
create a user group called nvm, add every user that need to use nvm to this group and change the permissions of your nvm dir to group writeable: chmod 2775 /usr/local/nvm (the first digit (2) is the setgid bit, explained here, which ensures the group for execution in this directory stays the same)

endorama

endorama commented on Jan 21, 2014

@endorama

+1 for nvmsudo solution proposed by @treehau5

drkibitz

drkibitz commented on Jan 21, 2014

@drkibitz
Contributor

+1 for @koenpunt point on group access.

21 remaining items

Spudz76

Spudz76 commented on Oct 7, 2017

@Spudz76

authbind is great and all, but what about things like raw-socket? I use net-ping which pulls in raw-socket which can only work as root. Would some libcap thing work to bypass the "haxor crafty packet injection" usermode block?

ljharb

ljharb commented on Oct 8, 2017

@ljharb
Member

"can only work as root" seems like a reason to not use a piece of software, tbh.

Spudz76

Spudz76 commented on Oct 8, 2017

@Spudz76

man 7 raw

So it appears that setting the CAP_NET_RAW for the node executable will open just a big enough hole for raw-socket to operate without root, maybe, but I"m skeptical (untested because I'm running it as root because I'm not paranoid).

sudo setcap cap_net_raw+eip $(eval readlink -f `which node`)

"Microsoft" is also a reason not to use a piece of software, but lots of poor souls use that, because they have no choice. I'd love to go fix everyone elses' software but sometimes you just need root to solve headaches and get it working NOW and in ALL CASES ensured.

And if it's just plain simpler to run as root and I accept the ramifications of doing so, it should be trivial. Maybe even a supported method to drop privs (like Apache httpd does?) so the whole process doesn't have to run as root (just the socket thread). And anyway this applet literally can't be exploited / never heard of a privilege escalation problem with Node.js / why be so paranoid when it is clearly unnecessary? Best practice is not the only practice and it's never best for every use case... such as on a VM where yippee you got root and can't do anything, gg hacker bruh.

ljharb

ljharb commented on Oct 9, 2017

@ljharb
Member

At any rate, the way npm works is beyond the scope of this repo.

If you want nvm to work for a root user, then that root user needs to have its own installation of nvm.

plastmasser

plastmasser commented on Jan 24, 2020

@plastmasser

on debian (or ubuntu) based sytem in addition to setting the alias as @mpotra said you might need to run
sudo ln -s "$(which node)" /usr/local/bin/node for npm to work in sudo mode

sudo ln -s "$(which node)" /usr/local/bin/node
outputs
ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/local/bin/node': File exists

volodalexey

volodalexey commented on Mar 2, 2020

@volodalexey

I wanted to run some old-legacy sdk. This sdk should use old node v6.
Following command did not work for me:

sudo somesdk

Command 'node' not found

As suggested I switched to sudo:

sudo -s

Then I read nvm.sh for current user (e.g. someuser):

source /home/someuser/.nvm/nvm.sh

After this I have nvm for sudo (for current session, which is enough for me)

root@domain:~# nvm

Node Version Manager (v0.35.2)
hinell

hinell commented on Mar 11, 2020

@hinell

Here is an ad-hoc workaround you may want to use to run commands temporarily:

$ sudo PATH=$PATH bash -c "node ..."

For instance:

$ sudo PATH=$PATH bash -c "which node npm pnpm"
/home/alex/.nvm/versions/node/v13.10.1/bin/node
/home/alex/.nvm/versions/node/v13.10.1/bin/npm
/home/alex/.nvm/versions/node/v13.10.1/bin/pnpm
sandro768

sandro768 commented on Apr 13, 2021

@sandro768
sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/node"
sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/npm" "/usr/local/bin/npm"

Source - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21215059/cant-use-nvm-from-root-or-sudo

aderchox

aderchox commented on Aug 2, 2024

@aderchox

Ah this was really a pain as I thought the issue was with my script and wasted a few hours on it 😪

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          alias node for sudoers · Issue #43 · nvm-sh/nvm