Here is the cause of your issue:

gyp verb get node dir compiling against specified --nodedir dev files: C:/Appli/nodejsgyp

You are either explicitly or implicitly passing a bad --nodedir path to node-gyp. If you don't pass it on the command line, look in your .npmrc.

@bnoordhuis I am passing C:/Appli/nodejs as --nodedir value and that seems correct to me since this folder contains the node executable

Can you explain a bit more how this is related to my error?

--nodedir should point to the node.js source tree, either from a tarball or from git, not the directory containing the binaries.

@bnoordhuis That's very confusing since the Readme says the --nodedir should contain the path to the node binary

I quickly tried with the nodedir pointing to C:\Users\user\.node-gyp\8.9.1\include\node instead of C:\Appli\nodejs and there is no more error with common.gypi, but the new error is Cannot open include file: 'node. h'.

I will try to see if I find some interesting info in existing issues.

Oh, you're right. The documentation is simply wrong on that point. I'll get it updated.

I quickly tried with the nodedir pointing to C:\Users\user.node-gyp\8.9.1\include\node

Note that --nodedir should point to a source tree, not just the header files. If you don't pass anything to node-gyp, it figures it out on its own most of the time.

@bnoordhuis Does that means you have to get the node source tree in order to install an dependency using node-gyp??

I haven't seen that in the docs. I thought the header and the node.lib would be enough 🤔

Is it written somewhere? I would like to pin the place where it is explained in order to remember that.

Does that mean that if I have multiple node install (via nvm-windows) I should have the node source for every version?

If you don't specify anything, node-gyp downloads the appropriate headers. If you have those installed already but in a non-standard location where node-gyp won't find them, use --devdir, not --nodedir.

OK that's exactly what I was doing first 😄

But it didn't work because for some reason node-gyp was trying to look for common.gypi in C:\Appli\nodejs

So I set the devdir to C:\Users\user\.node-gyp\8.9.1\include\node, but it didn't change anything.

So I set the nodedir to C:\Users\user\.node-gyp\8.9.1\include\node, and it changed the error.

So I set the nodedir to C:\Users\user\.node-gyp\8.9.1 and it said it was not finding the node.lib file in C:\Users\user\.node-gyp\8.9.1\Release\node.lib

In my previous message, I was at this point.

Then I looked in C:\Users\user\.node-gyp\8.9.1 and saw there was a node.lib file in the x64 folder so I created a Release folder next to it and copied the node.lib file and it worked!

But when I read your last answer I realized that maybe the source problem was that nodedir npm config was already set in the first place (I don't know why).

So I deleted devdir and nodedir in npm config and tried to install my dependency and... it worked 🎉

To sum up, nodedir was set in npm config and it should not have been the case. Thanks.

Can confirm that --devdir didn't help. --tarball is useless because node-gyp subsequently wants to download the node.lib file, and as per #1002 there's no option to point anything to node.lib.

Here was my solution, hope to help anyone else stuck behind corporate barriers. I'm using v16.2.0 as an example, so swap with your appropriate node version.

Create a folder you're happy to house 16.2.0 data and point to it with the terminal command. I chose %USERPROFILE%\.node-gyp\16.2.0. Doesn't have to be in .node-gyp.

Create two subfolders within that folder: Release and src.

Download: https://nodejs.org/download/release/v16.2.0/win-x64/node.lib and https://nodejs.org/download/release/v16.2.0/node-v16.2.0-headers.tar.gz

Place node.lib in the Release subfolder.

Open the headers.tar.gz file. I used 7zip. Once inside the tar, navigate to include/node.

Extract the two .gypi files into your base folder.

Extract everything else into the src subfolder.

Run using --nodedir=%USERPROFILE%\.node-gyp\16.2.0 (or your equivalent folder if you differed from me)

• Error encountered on Windows using Node 18.10.0

PS C:\Users\Mike\git\ngp-projects-api> npm rebuild
more information.
npm ERR! code 1
npm ERR! path C:\Users\Mike\git\ngp-projects-api\node_modules\gcstats.js
npm ERR! command failed
npm ERR! command C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /d /s /c node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
npm ERR! gyp info using node-gyp@9.1.0
npm ERR! gyp info using node@18.10.0 | win32 | x64
npm ERR! gyp info find Python using Python version 3.9.7 found at "C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\python.exe"
npm ERR! gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/node-v18.10.0-headers.tar.gz
npm ERR! gyp http 200 https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/node-v18.10.0-headers.tar.gz
npm ERR! gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/SHASUMS256.txt
npm ERR! gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/win-x86/node.lib
npm ERR! gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/win-x64/node.lib
npm ERR! gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/win-arm64/node.lib
npm ERR! gyp http 200 https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/SHASUMS256.txt
npm ERR! gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
npm ERR! gyp ERR! configure error
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack FetchError: request to https://nodejs.org/download/release/v18.10.0/win-x86/node.lib failed, reason: connect ETIMEDOUT 2606:4700:10::6814:162e:443
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\nvs\node\18.10.0\x64\node_modules\npm\node_modules\minipass-fetch\lib\index.js:130:14)
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:513:28)
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at TLSSocket.socketErrorListener (node:_http_client:494:9)
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:525:35)
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at emitErrorNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:151:8)
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at emitErrorCloseNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:116:3)
npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:82:21)
npm ERR! gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.19044
npm ERR! gyp ERR! command "C:\\Users\\Mike\\AppData\\Local\\nvs\\node\\18.10.0\\x64\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\\Mike\\AppData\\Local\\nvs\\node\\18.10.0\\x64\\node_modules\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
npm ERR! gyp ERR! cwd C:\Users\Mike\git\ngp-projects-api\node_modules\gcstats.js
npm ERR! gyp ERR! node -v v18.10.0
npm ERR! gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v9.1.0
npm ERR! gyp ERR! not ok

• Note: Not specifying --nodedir CLI option
• Problem is related to npm using IPv6 address that is timing out inside corporate Intranet
  • ETIMEDOUT 2606:4700:10::6814:162e:443
• Work-around was to copy the entire existing cache directory for Node 18.9.1 to a new cache directory called 18.10.0
• e,g,

C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\node-gyp\Cache\18.9.1 --> C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\node-gyp\Cache\18.10.0

• Solution worked for me but doesn't seem kosher
  • I was fortunate to have an existing cache folder to copy from my old Node installation (Node 18.9.1) before upgrading to Node 18.10.0

I solved this by manually download cache in windows powershell:
node "C:\Users\$($env:username)\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" install
The node-gyp.js is in global node_module.