Problems installing webbppl-viz

[Rui Mendes]

Hi guys,

I installed webppl in a Ubuntu LTS 16.04. My version of Node is v12.10.0

I tried to realize how to install webppl-viz by following the instructions on https://github.com/probmods/webppl-viz but when running:

npm install probmods/webppl-viz

I get ENOENT which seems to mean that it does not exits.

FYI, when listing the packages that should have something to do with webppl, this is what I get:

$ npm search webppl
NAME                      | DESCRIPTION          | AUTHOR          | DATE       | VERSION  | KEYWORDS                            
webppl                    | Probabilistic…       | =stuhlmueller   | 2019-03-31 | 0.9.15   | probabilistic programming church ppl
webppl-array-utils        | Extra array…         | =stuhlmueller   | 2016-06-17 | 0.0.1    | 
webppl-dp                 | Dynamic programming… | =stuhlmueller   | 2016-01-24 | 0.1.1    | 
webppl-csv                | WebPPL library for…  | =mhtess         | 2017-09-21 | 0.0.2    | 
webppl-json               | Utilities for…       | =stuhlmueller   | 2016-04-18 | 0.0.1    | 
webppl-timeit             | Measure execution…   | =stuhlmueller   | 2016-01-18 | 0.3.0    | 
scenesim                  | scene simulator,…    | =rowancheung    | 2018-12-15 | 1.0.0    | 
semppl                    | Semantic parsing…    | =jsonfreeman    | 2016-11-09 | 1.0.0    | 

Thanks in advance,

--Rui

[null-a]

> FYI, when listing the packages that should have something to do with webppl, this is what I get

I guess that `npm install probmods/webppl` is pulling the package directly from GitHub, which I think explains why webppl-viz isn't in your search results.

> I get ENOENT which seems to mean that it does not exits.

When I try to install this (Node 12.10.0, npm 6.11.3) I see a *lot* of warnings, one of which mentions ENOENT, but it definitely finds something to install. I'm doing:

mkdir ~/.webppl

npm install --prefix ~/.webppl probmods/webppl-viz

Which version of npm do you have? Is it worth sharing the entire output of your install attempt?

[Rui Mendes]

Just realized what was the problem. The error message was not the user friendly.I didn't have git installed!

In my defense, I never used node before.

Note: the following error appears in several versions of nodejs. I tried downgrading to 10.0.1 using nvm but the same problem persists.

After trying to install, I get many errors related to deprecation. The problems are related to compiling canvas.

This is the beginning of the error:

npm install probmods/webppl-viz
npm WARN deprecated bo...@2.10.1: This version has been deprecated in accordance with the hapi support policy (hapi.im/support). Please upgrade to the latest version to get the best features, bug fixes, and security patches. If you are unable to upgrade at this time, paid support is available for older versions (hapi.im/commercial).
npm WARN deprecated coffee...@1.3.3: CoffeeScript on NPM has moved to "coffeescript" (no hyphen)
npm WARN deprecated cor...@2.4.1: core-js@<2.6.8 is no longer maintained. Please, upgrade to core-js@3 or at least to actual version of core-js@2.
npm WARN deprecated cryp...@2.0.5: This version has been deprecated in accordance with the hapi support policy (hapi.im/support). Please upgrade to the latest version to get the best features, bug fixes, and security patches. If you are unable to upgrade at this time, paid support is available for older versions (hapi.im/commercial).
npm WARN deprecated domelem...@1.3.0: update to domelem...@1.3.1
npm WARN deprecated cor...@1.2.7: core-js@<2.6.8 is no longer maintained. Please, upgrade to core-js@3 or at least to actual version of core-js@2.
npm WARN deprecated mini...@0.3.0: Please update to minimatch 3.0.2 or higher to avoid a RegExp DoS issue
npm WARN deprecated fsev...@1.1.1: Way too old
npm WARN deprecated grace...@1.2.3: please upgrade to graceful-fs 4 for compatibility with current and future versions of Node.js
npm WARN deprecated mini...@0.2.14: Please update to minimatch 3.0.2 or higher to avoid a RegExp DoS issue
npm WARN deprecated ha...@3.1.3: This module moved to @hapi/hawk. Please make sure to switch over as this distribution is no longer supported and may contain bugs and critical security issues.
npm WARN deprecated ho...@2.16.3: This version has been deprecated in accordance with the hapi support policy (hapi.im/support). Please upgrade to the latest version to get the best features, bug fixes, and security patches. If you are unable to upgrade at this time, paid support is available for older versions (hapi.im/commercial).
npm WARN deprecated is-my-js...@2.16.0: catastrophic backtracking in regexes could potentially lead to REDOS attack, upgrade to 2.17.2 as soon as possible
npm WARN deprecated sn...@1.0.9: This module moved to @hapi/sntp. Please make sure to switch over as this distribution is no longer supported and may contain bugs and critical security issues.
npm WARN deprecated topo...@1.6.27: Use topojson-client, topojson-server or topojson-simplify directly.

> can...@1.6.4 install /home/rui/.webppl/node_modules/webppl-viz/node_modules/canvas
> node-gyp rebuild

make: Entering directory '/home/rui/.webppl/node_modules/webppl-viz/node_modules/canvas/build'
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/canvas-postbuild.node
  COPY Release/canvas-postbuild.node
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/canvas/src/Canvas.o
In file included from ../../nan/nan.h:190:0,
                 from ../src/Canvas.h:22,
                 from ../src/Canvas.cc:7:
../../nan/nan_maybe_43_inl.h: In function ‘Nan::Maybe<bool> Nan::ForceSet(v8::Local<v8::Object>, v8::Local<v8::Value>, v8::Local<v8::Value>, v8::PropertyAttribute)’:
../../nan/nan_maybe_43_inl.h:112:15: error: ‘class v8::Object’ has no member named ‘ForceSet’
   return obj->ForceSet(isolate->GetCurrentContext(), key, value, attribs);

[null-a]

The only thought I have at the moment is that while webppl-viz lists Cairo as a dependency (in the readme) the instructions for installing it link to the instructions for node-canvas:

https://github.com/Automattic/node-canvas/#installation

These instructions suggest that a regular install of node-canvas will download binaries rather than build from source. In this case, I guess you'd want to install it into the conventional directory used for webppl packages, so something like: node install --prefix ~/.webppl canvas

The fact that the webppl-viz readme links to these instructions makes me wonder whether doing this first is helpful? (By avoiding having to build it during the webbpl-viz install perhaps?)

Beyond that, I don't know what to suggest. We might have to hope that someone more familiar with webppl-viz is around to chime in.

[null-a]

I'm seeing similar errors when attempting a fresh install, but I managed to get things things working using this recipe:

https://github.com/probmods/webppl-viz/issues/91#issuecomment-597027252

Sorry this is probably too late to be useful to you.