Mac 10.7.4, node 0.8.8 npm install fails

[funston]

Any ideas why npm install soap is failing here?

.....

node-expat@1.6.1 install /Users/rich/dev/daisy/daisyjs-platform/node_modules/soap/node_modules/node-expat
node-gyp rebuild

CXX(target) Release/obj.target/node_expat/node-expat.o
SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/node_expat.node
ld: warning: ignoring file Release/obj.target/node_expat/node-expat.o, file was built for unsupported file format ( 0xcf 0xfa 0xed 0xfe 0x 7 0x 0 0x 0 0x 1 0x 3 0x 0 0x 0 0x 0 0x 1 0x 0 0x 0 0x 0 ) which is not the architecture being linked (i386): Release/obj.target/node_expat/node-expat.o
llvm-g++-4.2: error trying to exec '/usr/bin/../llvm-gcc-4.2/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin11-llvm-g++-4.2': execvp: No such file or directory
clang: error: linker (via gcc) command failed with exit code 255 (use -v to see invocation)
make: *** [Release/node_expat.node] Error 255
gyp ERR! build error
gyp ERR! stack Error: make failed with exit code: 2
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.onExit (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/build.js:219:23)
gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:91:17)
gyp ERR! stack at Process._handle.onexit (child_process.js:678:10)
gyp ERR! System Darwin 11.4.2
gyp ERR! command "node" "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /Users/rich/dev/daisy/daisyjs-platform/node_modules/soap/node_modules/node-expat

[joachimkainz]

Make sure to install macports (from macports.org) and run sudo port install expat

[rwinzinger]

Hi,

could you please briefly explain what the problem actually is and why I do have to use macports?

Thanks,
Ralph

[joachimkainz]

Sure. Some packages managed by npm have OS dependencies. In the case of
node-expat, this dependency is on the availability of libexpat.a. NPM
(unfortunately) does not manage OS dependencies, because there is no
uniform way to do that. As a result, one has to use the "native"
package management system to install these dependencies manually. If you
look at https://github.com/astro/node-expat, they actually tell you to
run apt-get
install libexpat1-dev.

Macports is the closest OSX-equivalent to apt-get on Ubuntu or yum on
CentOS/Redhat.

My $0.02 cents is that this is one of the thorniest issues when working
with Node/NPM and I hope that NPM will take on the provisioning problem on
the OS soon... But for now...

[rwinzinger]

Ok ... thought of something like that, but really wasn't sure. Thanks for the explanation since I'm currently starting a deep dive into node ...

[christiaanwesterbeek]

Seems like it's not just Windows that requires you to go to trouble to get node-gyp to work. I have created a fork that replaces Expat with Sax: #206

[herom]

Closed as this issue refers to an outdated dependency (dropped node-expat in favour of sax --> #246)