webpack-dev-server errors with "command not found: webpack-dev-server"

Question

don't really see why I can't get this to run... I've done the following.

npm install -g webpack webpack-dev-server

confirmed that both installed successfully.

Now, when I try and execute webpack-dev-server, I get the following:

$ webpack-dev-server --inline --hot
zsh: command not found: 'webpack-dev-server'

Never run into this as all my other npm modules load/run fine, both locally and globally. I've tried installing it locally to a project as well (adding to package.json, npm install, yadda yadda..) and receive the same error.

Am I missing something?

Same thing happening to me right now on Ubuntu. It worked on Mac a few hours ago.... — jmacedo
– jmacedo, Commented Nov 16, 2015 at 23:49
@jmacedo weird! Glad to know it's not just user error. Maybe they pushed a broken update shrug anyone else have any input? — tdc
– tdc, Commented Nov 17, 2015 at 15:50
@IliyaReyzis yes! please see accepted answer, a solution was found. :) — tdc
– tdc, Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 18:12

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

4

Found a solution as per this answer on GitHub:

I was able to solve this problem on my machine. It appears to have been an issue with permissions.

I installed webpack and webpack-dev-server globally. However, even then, $ webpack-dev-server resulted in command not found (as stated above).

The problem was that npm installed the global packages to /usr/local/lib/node_modules which required root permissions.

In order to avoid having to use root permissions, I changed the directory in which global packages are to be installed to a directory in $HOME. To do this, I followed this guide: https://github.com/sindresorhus/guides/blob/master/npm-global-without-sudo.md

I installed webpack and webpack-dev-server globally again (this time without sudo) and verified that they have been installed in my new directory.

Now, I can finally run $ webpack-dev-server.

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 2, 2016 at 13:47

tdc

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Comments

Samsul Islam · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-08 06:13:31Z

3

The problem is that npm installs the global packages to /usr/local/lib/node_modules which requires root permissions. To avoid this you can use Use sudo npm i -g webpack webpack-dev-server.
It worked for me.

edited Apr 8, 2021 at 6:13

Samsul Islam

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answered Feb 23, 2016 at 3:29

Murgin Boo

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1 Comment

Bruce Over a year ago

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