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Hi Im trying to get the LessCss command line compiler installed on a Mac.

I've tried

brew install less
Error: No available formula for less

brew install lessc
Error: No available formula for lessc

sudo npm install -g less
..Installs happily..

sudo npm install -g lessc
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lessc
npm http 404 https://registry.npmjs.org/lessc
npm ERR! 404 'lessc' is not in the npm registry.

npm install less --global
..Installs happily..

npm install lessc --global
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/lessc
npm http 404 https://registry.npmjs.org/lessc
npm ERR! 404 'lessc' is not in the npm registry.

and all I get is

less js/less/style.less > style-theme.css
-bash: less: command not found

lessc js/less/style.less > style-theme.css
-bash: lessc: command not found

Does anyone have any experience with this?

I found something said my path variable might be messed up. This:

/bin/echo $PATH

gets me:

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin
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1
  • How did you install node? Homebrew? Commented Oct 10, 2013 at 20:54

3 Answers 3

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17

the npm package name for lessc is less

try writing

sudo npm install -g less
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5 Comments

Ya I did that too, I looked at the NPM page. I think my path variable might be messed up. /bin/echo $PATH gets me/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin
it looks fine, make sure you have lessc in one of those paths, if not search for it and add it's directory to your $PATH
Thats exactly what Im doing. I've checked in /usr/local but I haven't found where Node was installed yet.
the path for lessc shortcut on my ubuntu machine is /usr/local/bin/lessc and the actual path is /usr/local/lib/node_modules/less/bin/lessc
Hmmm When I ls /usr/local/lib/node_modules all I get is npm... I wonder where I'm installing global modules then...
9

I will try to provide a complete answer.

All commands must be executed in the Terminal application.

  1. If you don't have it: Install Command Line Tools for Xcode

    xcode-select --install

  2. If you don't have it: Install HomeBrew

    ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

  3. If you don't have it: Install Node.js

    brew install node

  4. Install LessCSS

    sudo npm install -g less

Now you can execute lessc commands.

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2 Comments

Thanks Jeroen! This installs fine, but seems to build the executable with ownernship root and non-executable by group/others. Is this normal? How do I fix? sudo ll /usr/local/bin/lessc lrwx------ 1 root wheel 34 Oct 29 10:11 /usr/local/bin/lessc@ -> ../lib/node_modules/less/bin/lessc
@NicCottrell Here it does not do that. Just re-installed lessc on a fresh MacOS. Both binary and symlijk have lrwxr-xr-x. You can fix it by doing: sudo chmod -h 755 /usr/local/bin/lessc /usr/local/lib/node_modules/less/bin/lessc
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i`m using macOS Siera and work for me, you can try:

  1. install npm using brew:

    brew install node

  2. check node and npm version using:

    node -v npm -v

3.change user to SU using:

sudo su

  1. install less:

npm install -g less

Good Luck.....

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