49

I get the following error when I run bower:

bower ESUDO Cannot be run with sudo

Thing is, I'm not running bower with sudo. The command I run is:

bower install foo

or

bower search cats

I am logged in as root to an Ubuntu 12.04 server but I am not using sudo. What gives? How do I get bower working?

Lothar_Grimpsenbacher
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4 Answers4

78

I had the same problem. All you have to do is add --allow-root to your command.

See this issue.

Binyomin Trager
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33

That won't work if it is a script someone else has written which is complaining (as if often the case using Docker, for example).

In that case, you should ensure that the following command is run before bower:

# echo '{ "allow_root": true }' > /root/.bowerrc

See here for a more in-depth explanation: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25672924/run-bower-from-root-user-its-possible-how

DMCoding
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5

The problem was that while bower won't run with sudo, it also won't run if you are logged in as root. You have to create a user and login with that in order to get it to work.

Lothar_Grimpsenbacher
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2

Use the --allow-root flag:

sudo bower --allow-root <comand>