npm "failed to parse json"

When I'm trying to install express with npm I always get the following error:

Failed to parse json
No data, empty input at 1:1
File: /root/.npm/inherits/2.0.1/package/package.json
Failed to parse package.json data.
package.json must be actual JSON, not just JavaScript.

This is not a bug in npm.
Tell the package author to fix their package.json file. JSON.parse

What am I doing wrong?

sudo npm install -g express

OS is Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) armhf

Don't forget to edit your package.json, escpeially the dependencies.

For example, one of my chatting room projects needs the following content in package.json:

{
"name":"chatrooms",
"version":"0.0.1",
"description":"Minimalist multi-room chat server",
"dependencies":{
"socket.io":"~0.9.6",
"mime":"~1.2.7"
}
}

I also got the same error message while run `npm install`, first run `npm package.json` to check errors in package.json file, if not then run `npm cache clean`

In Laravel project:

1. Delete 'node_modules' folder;
2. npm cache clean
3. npm update

Try to open your txt editor and select "plain text" for the package.json then re-save. Sometimes issue is overlooked and simple things are holding the answer.

I had the same problem but "npm cache clean" didnt resolve it for me. I had to go back to my package.json and realize i had comma where it shouldn't i suppose as shown below:

},
"devDependencies": {
"axios": "^0.15.3",
"bootstrap-sass": "^3.3.7",
"cross-env": "^3.2.4",
"jquery": "^3.1.1",
"laravel-mix": "0.*",
"lodash": "^4.17.4",
"vue": "^2.1.10",
}
after the "vue..." so I deleted that and every went back to normal. So it is **worth checking the package.json file first before running** `npm cache clean`

Mostly, this error is due to a syntax error in package.json file.
In my case, the opening curly brace for dependencies object in package.json was missing:-

Code--------------------------------

{
"name": "psrxjs",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies":
"rxjs": "^5.4.3"
}
}

-----------------------------

Thanks to [Jivings][1] from [this comment][2]:

npm cache clean

solved the problem.

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[2]:

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I experienced a similar issue today after updating Node on Windows 10. My local build tasks started failing and upon investigation I saw all these errors in my dependency package.json files. None of them were valid JSON anymore and I was seeing messages like:

npm WARN Failed to parse json
npm WARN Unexpected token '\u0019' at 1:1
npm WARN ������2�����bE�;���1L �\5�e���k2?��,?;��쏏a��(T��w��+I��/�6�P} ��i�|e�
npm WARN ^
in my console.

This story has a happy ending as it turns out that new Node doesn't play nice with old NPM and updating NPM to version 5 solved the problem. Hope this helps other folks who may experience this variation on this issue.

The following bash script fixes the problem automatically

#!/usr/bin/env bash
echo -e '#!/usr/bin/env bash' > npm_install.sh
cat npm-debug.log | grep 'error File:' | sed -n 's:.*error File\: \(.*\):echo "Removing \1"\nrm -f \1\necho "Cleaning npm cache"\nnpm cache clean\necho "Reinstalling npm"\nnpm install\n./npm_reinstall.sh:p' >> npm_install.sh
chmod +x npm_install.sh
./npm_install.sh

It should be saved to npm_reinstall.sh
and granted execution permissions using

chmod +x npm_reinstall.sh

The script is preforming the following tasks:

1. Looking for an error File : in npm-debug.log using grep
2. Using sed to generate the fix commands 3-5 only if there are errors
3. Removing the empty file *rm -f* /1 = file path from the first group in regular expression *.\*error File: (.\*)*
4. Cleaning npm cache *npm cache clean*
5. Reinstalling npm *npm install*
6. Running ./npm_reinstall.sh recursively till no errors are found

More information about npm install can be found at [npm-install command documentation][1]


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