Botched npm Update Crashes Linux Systems, Forces Users to Reinstall (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by msmash on Thursday February 22, 2018 @08:50AM from the beware dept.

Catalin Cimpanu, reporting for BleepingComputer: A bug in npm (Node Package Manager), the most widely used JavaScript package manager, will change ownership of crucial Linux system folders, such as /etc, /usr, /boot. Changing ownership of these files either crashes the system, various local apps, or prevents the system from booting, according to reports from users who installed npm v5.7.0. -- the buggy npm update. Users who installed this update -- mostly developers and software engineers -- will likely have to reinstall their system from scratch or restore from a previous system image.

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Re:I remain of the opinion... by BlueLightning · 2018-02-22 09:05 · Score: 5, Informative

I'd recommend watching this talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
or if you prefer, the excellent-as-usual LWN summary:
https://lwn.net/Articles/71231...
I don't like the language-specific package manager situation either, but the way these languages split things up does not lend itself well to the distro packaging model either unfortunately.