yarnpkg/yarn · error · MessageError

noPermission

Error message

noPermission

What it means

During global install/update, `initUpdateBins` creates the global `bin` folder and links binaries. `throwPermError` (`global.js:132`) inspects caught filesystem errors and, when `err.code === 'EACCES'`, rethrows `noPermission` with the failing path. EACCES means the OS denied create/write to that path.

Source

Thrown at src/cli/commands/global.js:132

    return FALLBACK_GLOBAL_PREFIX;
  }

  return prefix;
}

export async function getBinFolder(config: Config, flags: Object): Promise<string> {
  const prefix = await getGlobalPrefix(config, flags);
  return path.resolve(prefix, 'bin');
}

async function initUpdateBins(config: Config, reporter: Reporter, flags: Object): Promise<() => Promise<void>> {
  const beforeBins = await getBins(config);
  const binFolder = await getBinFolder(config, flags);

  function throwPermError(err: Error & {[code: string]: string}, dest: string) {
    if (err.code === 'EACCES') {
      throw new MessageError(reporter.lang('noPermission', dest));
    } else {
      throw err;
    }
  }

  return async function(): Promise<void> {
    try {
      await fs.mkdirp(binFolder);
    } catch (err) {
      throwPermError(err, binFolder);
    }

    const afterBins = await getBins(config);

    // remove old bins
    for (const src of beforeBins) {
      if (afterBins.has(src)) {
        // not old

View on GitHub (pinned to c2dda503f3)

Solutions

1. Reconfigure the global prefix to a user-writable dir: `yarn config set prefix ~/.yarn-global`.
2. Fix ownership: `sudo chown -R $(whoami) <prefix>`.
3. Avoid `sudo yarn global add` (it root-owns files and worsens the problem).
4. Use a node version manager (nvm) so the prefix is under your home dir.

Example fix

// before
$ yarn global add prettier
→ Cannot create /usr/local/bin due to insufficient permissions.

// after
$ yarn config set prefix ~/.yarn-global
$ yarn global add prettier

import fs from 'fs';

function assertWritableBinFolder(binFolder: string): void {
  try {
    fs.accessSync(binFolder, fs.constants.W_OK);
  } catch {
    throw new Error(`${binFolder} is not writable by ${process.env.USER}; set yarn prefix to a user-owned dir`);
  }
}

try {
  await yarnGlobalAdd(pkg);
} catch (e) {
  if (/insufficient permissions/.test(e.message)) {
    await reconfigurePrefixToUserDir(); // yarn config set prefix ~/.yarn-global
    await yarnGlobalAdd(pkg);
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: An `EACCES` filesystem error on the global prefix or bin folder — typically `fs.mkdirp(binFolder)` or a subsequent symlink/write fails because the directory is owned by root/another user.

Common situations: Default global prefix resolves to `/usr/local/bin` (system-owned); the user ran without sudo but the dir is not writable; previous `sudo yarn global add` changed ownership of `~/.config`/`~/.local`.

Related errors

• Yarn hasn't been able to find a cache folder it can use. Ple
• linkMissing
• Don't know how to handle this file type
• unknownFolderOrTarball
• linkMissing

AI-assisted analysis of yarnpkg/yarn@c2dda503f3 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/30b8f5ff9a4c1247. Report an issue: GitHub.