"npm owner add" failing, although user does exist

[Laurie]

I'm working with a replica of the public npm registry, which has been working great so far. However, today I got an error on `npm owner add <user> <pkg>`, which I can't explain. I've used the same command for other usernames previously without error.

`npm login` works for that username, so the user is definitely in the registry. However, it's returning a 404 response:

$ npm owner add <user> <pkg>

npm http GET http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

npm http 404 http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

npm ERR! owner mutate Error getting user data for <user>

npm ERR! System Darwin 13.0.0

npm ERR! command "/Users/lharper/.nvm/v0.8.26/bin/node" "/Users/lharper/.nvm/v0.8.26/bin/npm" "owner" "add" "<user>" "<pkg>"

npm ERR! cwd /Users/lharper

npm ERR! node -v v0.8.26

npm ERR! npm -v 1.2.30

npm ERR! code E404

npm ERR!

npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:

npm ERR!     /Users/lharper/npm-debug.log

npm ERR! not ok code 0

If I hit that same URL using curl, I get back the user document. So why is npm seeing a 404 response? Is it maybe including authentication credentials on that request? (when I hit the URL with curl I'm not supplying any credentials.)

I've included the npm-debug.log output below, which shows the versions of npm/node/couchdb used. I should also note that CouchDB is configured in 'admin party' mode -- no admin credentials required to access it. Perhaps also relevant, `npm login` (for any user) is showing a 409 response for the PUT to the main couch _users entry:

$ npm login

Username: (<user>)

Email: (<email>)

npm http PUT http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

npm http 409 http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

npm http GET http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

npm http 200 http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

npm http PUT http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>/-rev/12-2797a6097d00170aea9bdb004aac74bc

npm http 201 http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>/-rev/12-2797a6097d00170aea9bdb004aac74bc

I'm not sure if that's normal or not?

Anyway, here's npm-debug.log:

0 info it worked if it ends with ok

1 verbose cli [ '/Users/lharper/.nvm/v0.8.26/bin/node',

1 verbose cli   '/Users/lharper/.nvm/v0.8.26/bin/npm',

1 verbose cli   'owner',

1 verbose cli   'add',

1 verbose cli   '<user>',

1 verbose cli   '<pkg>' ]

2 info using n...@1.2.30

3 info using no...@v0.8.26

4 verbose owner add <user> to <pkg>

5 verbose url raw /-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

6 verbose url resolving [ 'http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/',

6 verbose url resolving   './-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>' ]

7 verbose url resolved http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

8 info trying registry request attempt 1 at 18:36:04

9 http GET http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

10 http 404 http://<host>:5984/registry/_design/app/_rewrite/-/user/org.couchdb.user:<user>

11 silly registry.get cb [ 404,

11 silly registry.get   { server: 'CouchDB/1.3.0 (Erlang OTP/R15B02)',

11 silly registry.get     date: 'Tue, 04 Feb 2014 23:36:04 GMT',

11 silly registry.get     'content-type': 'application/json',

11 silly registry.get     'content-length': '41',

11 silly registry.get     'cache-control': 'must-revalidate' } ]

12 error owner mutate Error getting user data for <user>

13 error System Darwin 13.0.0

14 error command "/Users/lharper/.nvm/v0.8.26/bin/node" "/Users/lharper/.nvm/v0.8.26/bin/npm" "owner" "add" "<user>" "<pkg>"

15 error cwd /Users/lharper

16 error node -v v0.8.26

17 error npm -v 1.2.30

18 error code E404

19 verbose exit [ 1, true ]