Installing npm on Centos 7

Question

I can say I went through all Google results regarding this, but no one works. The GNU libc version is very old:
ldd (GNU libc) 2.17.

Trying version up to nodesource 8.x all installations fails because of the old GNU libc:

Error: Package: 2:nodejs-19.9.0-1nodesource.x86_64 (nodesource)
           Requires: libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.27)(64bit)
Error: Package: 2:nodejs-19.9.0-1nodesource.x86_64 (nodesource)
           Requires: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.28)(64bit)

What can I do? Would it help when I try to build node from the source with gcc-c++? Reading the requirements I doubt this will work because Centos 7 has also a very old gcc version which is not supported anymore, or am I wrong?

Any hints?

Answer 1

I got it work:

1. cloning it from Github - V19.9.0
2. Installing C++ 11
3. Setting the proper export variables for configure
4. Compiling and installing it.
5. This are now the installed versions:

root@server:/usr/local/src/node => npm version
{

  npm: '9.6.3',
  node: '19.9.0',
  acorn: '8.8.2',
  ada: '1.0.4',
  ares: '1.19.0',
  brotli: '1.0.9',
  cldr: '42.0',
  icu: '72.1',
  llhttp: '8.1.0',
  modules: '111',
  napi: '8',
  nghttp2: '1.52.0',
  nghttp3: '0.7.0',
  ngtcp2: '0.8.1',
  openssl: '3.0.8+quic',
  simdutf: '3.2.3',
  tz: '2023c',
  undici: '5.21.0',
  unicode: '15.0',
  uv: '1.44.2',
  uvwasi: '0.0.16',
  v8: '10.8.168.25-node.16',
  zlib: '1.2.13'
}

root@server:~ => cat /etc/centos-release
CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (Core)

root@server:~ => ldd --version
ldd (GNU libc) 2.17
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.

Answer 2

How to run node v20.x on CentOs 7.9?

This approach is similar to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72921215/getting-glibc-2-28-not-found/77247394#77247394 and https://serverfault.com/questions/894625/safely-upgrade-glibc-on-centos-7/894689#894689 but for CentOS@^7.

Taking the current LTS version of node@^22 that requires [email protected] since node@^18 as example:

1. Install pre-built [email protected] from centos-release-scl:

   yum install centos-release-scl
   yum install devtoolset-8-{gcc,make}
   

2. Enter the subshell with [email protected]

   scl enable devtoolset-8 # enter scl subshell
   which gcc # /opt/rh/devtoolset-8/root/usr/bin/gcc
   gcc --version # gcc version 8.3.1 20190311 (Red Hat 8.3.1-3) (GCC)
   

3. Grab the source of [email protected]:

   wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-2.28.tar.xz
   tar xvf glibc-2.28.tar.xz
   

4. Build the [email protected]:

   cd glibc-2.28
   mkdir build
   cd build
   
   ../configure --prefix=/opt/glibc-2.28
   time make -j"$(nproc)"
   make install
   exit # exit the scl subshell
   

5. Grab the source of [email protected] for building its [email protected] as node@22 is requiring versionized symbol with GLIBCX_3.4.22:

   • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48360886/nodejs-circleci-glibcxx-3-4-21-not-found
   • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56164795/error-with-npm-sqlite3-library-after-upgrading-to-node-12-glibcxx-3-4-21-not
   • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38167639/glibcx-3-4-21-not-found
   • https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/issues/1774
   • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58424974/anaconda-importerror-usr-lib64-libstdc-so-6-version-glibcxx-3-4-21-not-fo

   And according to https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/manual/abi.html in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44773296/libstdc-so-6-version-glibcxx-3-4-20-not-found/49363515#49363515 , the first version that exporting symbol version GLIBCX_3.4.22 is between [email protected] and [email protected] so we choose to build the latest [email protected] within its 6.x series

   wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-6.5.0/gcc-6.5.0.tar.xz
   tar xvf gcc-6.5.0.tar.xz
   
   scl enable devtoolset-8 # enter scl subshell
   cd gcc-6.5.0
   mkdir build
   cd build
   

6. It's possible to compile only the libstdc++.so.6 without build the whole GCC: How to compile libstdc++ with specific compiler option?

   ../libstdc++-v3/configure --prefix=/opt/libstdc++-6.0.22 --disable-multilib
   time make -j"$(nproc)"
   

   But the built artifact won't export symbol _ZSt11__once_call that Node is importing, this can be verified by

   strings src/.libs/libstdc++.so.6.0.22 | grep _ZSt11__once_call
   

   that outputs nothing: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72405588/using-clang-with-built-libstdc-produces-undefined-symbol-zst15-once-callable

7. So we'll still have to build the complete GCC collection:

   cd ..
   rm -rf build
   ./contrib/download_prerequisites
   
   mkdir build
   cd build
   ../configure --prefix=/opt/gcc-6.5.0 --disable-multilib
   

8. Depend on the performance of your hardware, this may take hours and many GiBs of disk space: https://gcc.gnu.org/install/build.html

   time make -j"$(nproc)"
   cd x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/libstdc++-v3 # only install libstdc++.so
   make install
   exit # exit the scl subshell
   

9. If you are in hurry and trusting some randomly uploaded binrary, extract the path gcc63-c++-6.3.0-1.el7.x86_64.cpio\.\usr\local\gcc63\lib64\libstdc++.so.6.0.22 from gcc63-c++-6.3.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm that uploaded by https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47175706/how-to-install-gcc-4-9-2-on-rhel-7-4/47189915#47189915 and store it under /opt/glibc-2.28/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.22.

   On Windows you may use NanaZip to unarchive *.rpm and *.cpio files.

10. Symlinking the built libstdc++.so.6.0.22 under /opt/glibc-2.28/lib if you don't want to define a shell var LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/gcc-6.5.0/lib64 node for everytime running node:

    ln -s /opt/gcc-6.5.0/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.22 /opt/glibc-2.28/lib/libstdc++.so.6
    

11. Download binrary of patchelf for patching the node executable:

    wget https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/releases/download/0.18.0/patchelf-0.18.0-x86_64.tar.gz
    tar xzvf patchelf-0.18.0-x86_64.tar.gz
    

12. Download the node itself:

    wget https://nodejs.org/download/release/v22.12.0/node-v22.12.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
    tar xvf node-v22.12.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
    cd node-v22.12.0-linux-x64/bin
    

13. Patch node:

    ~/patchelf/bin/patchelf --set-interpreter /opt/glibc-2.28/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 node # required
    ~/patchelf/bin/patchelf --set-rpath /opt/glibc-2.28/lib:/usr/lib64 node # optional, similar to 9.
    

14. Enjoy:

    ./node
    console.log(1);
    process.exit(2);
    echo $?
    

Kickstart script:

# https://gist.github.com/mohanpedala/1e2ff5661761d3abd0385e8223e16425
# https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/105
set -euxo pipefail

wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-2.28.tar.xz
tar xvf glibc-2.28.tar.xz

yum install centos-release-scl
yum install devtoolset-8-{gcc,make}
scl enable devtoolset-8
    cd glibc-2.28
    mkdir build
    cd build

    ../configure --prefix=/opt/glibc-2.28
    make -j"$(nproc)"
    make install
exit

wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-6.5.0/gcc-6.5.0.tar.xz
tar xvf gcc-6.5.0.tar.xz

scl enable devtoolset-8
    cd gcc-6.5.0
    ./contrib/download_prerequisites

    mkdir build
    cd build
    ../configure --prefix=/opt/gcc-6.5.0 --disable-multilib

    # depend on the performance of your hardware, this may take hours and many GiBs of disk space
    time make -j"$(nproc)"
    make install
exit

ln -s /opt/gcc-6.5.0/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.22 /opt/glibc-2.28/lib/libstdc++.so.6

wget https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/releases/download/0.18.0/patchelf-0.18.0-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzvf patchelf-0.18.0-x86_64.tar.gz

wget https://nodejs.org/download/release/v22.12.0/node-v22.12.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
tar xvf node-v22.12.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
cd node-v22.12.0-linux-x64/bin

# https://serverfault.com/questions/894625/safely-upgrade-glibc-on-centos-7/894689#894689
~/patchelf/bin/patchelf --set-interpreter /opt/glibc-2.28/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 node
~/patchelf/bin/patchelf --set-rpath /opt/glibc-2.28/lib:/usr/lib64 node

./node