gulp: command not found error [Solved]

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Borislav Hadzhiev

Last updated: Jan 19, 2023
5 min

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# 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.

command not found gulp

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

shell
# 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 dev dependency npm install --save-dev gulp # ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ if command outputs version, gulp is installed gulp --version

install gulp cli globally

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

If the global installation of gulp fails, you might have to run the command prefixed with sudo.
shell
# 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 dev dependency npm install --save-dev gulp # ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ if command outputs version, gulp is installed gulp --version

get gulp version

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

# Update your PATH on macOS or Linux

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

shell
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.

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:

shell
# 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
# ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ 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 the gulp cli globally by running npm install -g gulp-cli.

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
# 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 dev dependency npm install --save-dev gulp # ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ if command outputs version, gulp is installed gulp --version

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

If the global installation of gulp fails, you might have to run the command prefixed with sudo.
shell
# 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 dev dependency npm install --save-dev gulp # ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ if command outputs 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.

shell
# 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 dev dependency npm install --save-dev gulp # ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ if command outputs version, gulp is installed gulp --version

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

If the global installation of gulp fails, you have to open your shell as an administrator and rerun the commands.

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:

shell
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:

  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 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 "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.

shell
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 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 gulp globally by running npm install -g gulp-cli.

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
# 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 dev dependency npm install --save-dev gulp # ๐Ÿ‘‡๏ธ if command outputs version, gulp is installed gulp --version

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

If the global installation of gulp fails, you have to open your shell as an administrator and rerun the commands.

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

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Copyright ยฉ 2024 Borislav Hadzhiev