`cache folder contains root-owned files` error with `buildNpmPackage`

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1

Good morning.

I’m writing this post because I’m facing a strange error with buildNpmPackage that doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere.

When trying to build the attached flake, in fact, NPM fails with the following error:

npm ERR! path /nix/store/lygyvacyjpmfsji3ym4n4d2wi4fxc0h5-antares-v0.7.9-npm-deps/_cacache/tmp
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR!   sudo chown -R 1000:100 "/nix/store/lygyvacyjpmfsji3ym4n4d2wi4fxc0h5-antares-v0.7.9-npm-deps"

npm ERR! Log files were not written due to an error writing to the directory: /nix/store/lygyvacyjpmfsji3ym4n4d2wi4fxc0h5-antares-v0.7.9-npm-deps/_logs
npm ERR! You can rerun the command with `--loglevel=verbose` to see the logs in your terminal

Personally, I find this pretty puzzling, as (citing the nixpkgs manual) “buildNpmPackage allows you to package npm-based projects in Nixpkgs without the use of an auto-generated dependencies files […] by […] creating a reproducible cache that contains the dependencies of a project, and pointing npm to it”, which makes links to the root-owned Nix Store expected.

Can someone point me to what I’ve done wrong in writing the derivation? Thank you very much in advance!

My flake.nix:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, flake-utils }:
    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (
      system: let
        pkgs = import nixpkgs { inherit system; };
        antaressql = pkgs.buildNpmPackage {
          pname = "antares";
          version = "v0.7.9";

          src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
            owner = "antares-sql";
            repo = "antares";
            rev = "v0.7.9";
            sha256 = "sha256-QCXQFRW/lLMELQLclRmCZnXorWJrAQaXKHIGsKNLZuI=";
          };

          npmDepsHash = "sha256-0Jb2WnUDXv6SjtnUx3854YKz4XEcRNpDH3KYQb3o1pw=";

          ELECTRON_SKIP_BINARY_DOWNLOAD = "1";
        };
      in
        {
          defaultPackage = antaressql;
        }
    );
}
2 Likes
2

I’ve been seeing the exact same error trying to build the quartz static site generator. Did you ever figure out what was going on here?

1 Like
3

Just ran into this as well. A bit more log context, in case it helps:

@nix { "action": "setPhase", "phase": "unpackPhase" }
unpacking sources
unpacking source archive /nix/store/lsw181y0h0b1sb63gmz2c41f0allk39f-source
source root is source
@nix { "action": "setPhase", "phase": "patchPhase" }
patching sources
Executing npmConfigHook
Configuring npm
Validating consistency between /build/source/package-lock.json and /nix/store/30k9hk6f57h7bwlbd4jp749yhxmval0b-lean4web-npm-deps/package-lock.json
Installing dependencies
npm WARN tarball cached data for lean4@https://gitpkg.now.sh/leanprover/vscode-lean4/vscode-lean4?8d0cc34dcfa00da8b4a48394ba1fb3a600e3f985 (sha512-hA7bb0EFlNwtk7+/7gO5OZS7HtrhmoRacE/b2etFBYG4>
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall unlink
npm ERR! path /nix/store/30k9hk6f57h7bwlbd4jp749yhxmval0b-lean4web-npm-deps/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/84/0e/db6f410594dc2d93bfbfee03b93994bb1edae19a845a704fdbd9eb450581b815b91977f34a4dcb393c>
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR!   sudo chown -R 1000:100 "/nix/store/30k9hk6f57h7bwlbd4jp749yhxmval0b-lean4web-npm-deps"

npm ERR! Log files were not written due to an error writing to the directory: /nix/store/30k9hk6f57h7bwlbd4jp749yhxmval0b-lean4web-npm-deps/_logs
npm ERR! You can rerun the command with `--loglevel=verbose` to see the logs in your terminal
4

Can you provide a reproducer? I suspect that this could be a symptom of a different issue, and that the error message is just misleading.

5

Hmm, some combination of running nix run nixpkgs#nodejs -- npm install --package-lock-only and updating that repository somehow fixed it, and I can’t easily reproduce it now. I’ll try to share a reproducer when I encounter it again!

6

@winter I also have hit this issue. Here is a reproducer.

{ buildNpmPackage, ... }:
buildNpmPackage {
  pname = "dependency-track-frontend";
  version =  "4.11.5";

  src = fetchFromGitHub {
    owner = "DependencyTrack";
    repo = "frontend";
    rev = version;
    hash = "sha256-YJ5D7hTLlaAgOXz4nT+eh1n5/OulHCsPCN1LAB+1J8M=";
  };

  npmDepsHash = "sha256-LHK222OzjVHYP4/cVpWfoFSFbfbEt5FNTJry5te3XvQ=";
  forceGitDeps = true;

  # The prepack script runs the build script, which we'd rather do in the build phase.
  npmPackFlags = [ "--ignore-scripts" ];
};
7

I was able to fix this issue by setting makeCacheWritabel = true;

1 Like
8

I just ran into this. npm update to update package-lock.json did the trick.