gulp: command not found error [Solved]

# Table of Contents

1. gulp: command not found error
2. 'gulp' is not recognized as an internal or external command

# gulp: command not found error

To solve the error "gulp: command not found", install the gulp-cli package globally by running npm install -g gulp-cli and restart your terminal.

If the command fails, run it with sudo and make sure the correct PATH is set in your system's environment variable.

Open your terminal and install the gulp cli globally by running the following command.

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# 1. install `gulp-cli` globally
npm install -g gulp-cli

# 2. Create a directory and initialize your project

# 3. In your project directory install gulp as a dev dependency
npm install --save-dev gulp

# 👇️ if the command outputs the version, gulp is installed
gulp --version

If the gulp --version command outputs a version number, then gulp is installed successfully.

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# 1. If you got a permissions error, run with sudo
sudo npm install -g gulp-cli

# 2. Create a directory and initialize your project

# 3. In your project directory install gulp as a dev dependency
npm install --save-dev gulp

# 👇️ if the command outputs the version, then gulp is installed
gulp --version

# Update your PATH on macOS or Linux

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 that didn't work, try to add the path to the bin folder (from npm config get prefix) to your PATH environment variable and restart your terminal.

For example, 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.

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

Copied!
# 1. install `gulp-cli` globally
npm install -g gulp-cli

# 2. Create a directory and initialize your project

# 3. In your project directory install gulp as a dev dependency
npm install --save-dev gulp

# 👇️ if the command outputs the version, gulp is installed
gulp --version

If the gulp --version command outputs a version number, then gulp is installed successfully.

Copied!
# 1. If you got permissions error, run with sudo
sudo npm install -g gulp-cli

# 2. Create a directory and initialize your project

# 3. In your project directory install gulp as a dev dependency
npm install --save-dev gulp

# 👇️ if the command outputs the version, gulp is installed
gulp --version

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

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

To solve the error "'gulp' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file", install the gulp-cli package globally by running npm install -g gulp-cli, restart your terminal and make sure your PATH environment variable is set up correctly.

Copied!
# 1. install `gulp-cli` globally
npm install -g gulp-cli

# 2. Create a directory and initialize your project

# 3. In your project directory install gulp as a dev dependency
npm install --save-dev gulp

# 👇️ if the command outputs the version, gulp is installed
gulp --version

If the gulp --version command outputs a version number, then gulp is installed successfully.

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

# Update your PATH environment variable on Windows

If that didn'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.

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:

1. Open the start search and type in env and then click "Edit the system environment variables"
2. Then click "Environment Variables"
3. 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 get the error "gulp 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

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

Copied!
# 1. install `gulp-cli` globally
npm install -g gulp-cli

# 2. Create a directory and initialize your project

# 3. In your project directory install gulp as a dev dependency
npm install --save-dev gulp

# 👇️ if the command outputs the version, gulp is installed
gulp --version

If the gulp --version command outputs a version number, then gulp is installed successfully.

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