'rimraf' is not recognized as an internal or external command

# 'rimraf' is not recognized as an internal or external command

Use npx to solve the error "rimraf is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file", e.g. npx rimraf ./build or install the package globally by running npm install -g rimraf to be able to use the command without the npx prefix.

The fastest way to solve the error is to prefix the command with npx.

shell

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npx rimraf ./build

issue npx rimraf command

Alternatively, you can install rimraf globally or as a development dependency.

shell

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# 👇️ installs `rimraf` globally (can run from any directory)
npm install -g rimraf

# 👇️ (better) installs `rimraf` locally to the project (must be run from root directory)
npm install --save-dev rimraf

install rimraf globally

The benefit of installing rimraf as a development dependency is that you can control the version of the package in your package.json file.

You can create a script in the scripts object of your package.json file.

package.json

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{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "rimraf ./build && tsc",
  }
}

Now you would run the command as npm run build and not use rimraf directly.

If you decide to install rimraf globally and the installation fails, you might have to open your terminal as an administrator or run the command prefixed with sudo.

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# 👇️ If you get a permissions error
sudo npm install -g rimraf

You can link your project to the globally installed rimraf package, by opening your terminal in your project's root directory (where your package.json file is) and running the npm link rimraf command.

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npm link rimraf

The npm link command creates a symbolic link from the globally installed package to the node_modules/ directory of the current folder.

If the error is not resolved, try restarting your terminal.

# Update your PATH environment variable

If that doesn't help, run the following command:

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npm config get prefix

The command will show you the path where npm puts your globally installed packages. The global packages will be in the bin directory at the specified path.

Look at the PATH environment variable on your operating system and add the path that the npm config get prefix command outputs if it's not already there.

If you add the output from the command to your PATH environment variable, you have to restart any open command prompts before it takes effect.

On Windows, the output of the npm config get prefix command will look something like: C:\Users\Your_User_Name\AppData\Roaming\npm.

To update the PATH on a Windows machine, you have to:

Open the start search and type in env and then click "Edit the system environment variables"
Then click "Environment Variables"
Edit the Path variable and add the output you got from the npm config get prefix command.

The path should look like C:\Users\Your_User_Name\AppData\Roaming\npm (make sure to replace the Your_User_name placeholder with your actual username).

If you add the output from the command to your PATH environment variable, you have to restart any open command prompts before it takes effect.

If you get the error "rimraf cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system", open your PowerShell as an administrator and set its execution policy with the Set-ExecutionPolicy command.

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Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Make sure to open your PowerShell as an administrator before you run the Set-ExecutionPolicy command.

This effectively removes the execution policy of Restricted, which doesn't allow us to load configuration files or run scripts. The Restricted execution policy is the default for Windows client computers.

If you are on macOS, you can update your path with the following command:

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# make sure `path` matches with `npm config get prefix`
export PATH=/usr/local/share/npm/bin:$PATH

If you are on Linux, you can add the output from the npm config get prefix command to your .bashrc file.

~/.bashrc

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# 👇️ make sure to update the path with the output
# from the command
export PATH="/usr/local/share/npm/bin:$PATH"

If you add the output from the command to your PATH environment variable, you have to restart any open command prompts before it takes effect.

If that doesn't help try to reinstall Node.js on your machine and then install rimraf globally by running npm install -g rimraf.

During the installation, you might get a prompt for whether you want to automatically update the PATH environment variable on your system, make sure to tick the option.

shell

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# 👇️ installs `rimraf` globally (can run from any directory)
npm install -g rimraf

If the global installation of rimraf fails, you might have to open your shell as an administrator or run the command prefixed with sudo.

shell

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# 👇️ If you get a permissions error
sudo npm install -g rimraf

Alternatively, you can see how you can fix the permissions error on this page in the official npm docs.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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'rimraf' is not recognized as an internal or external command