Q:

What could cause a persistent error while uninstalling local packages?

I am trying to use a boilerplate code but before doing so I have to replace/remove some local packages. For some reasons almost every package I am trying to remove is causing errors.
Particularly I am trying to remove babel-cli and install using @babel/cli (same with other dependencies such as presets etc.). I stuck at uninstall stage and spent couple of days trying to fix this problem. I added relevant paths to env.variables section but it doesn't seem to help.
$ npm uninstall babel-cli

node-sass@4.5.3 install C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\node-sass
  node scripts/install.js

Downloading binary from https://github.com/sass/node-sass/releases/download/v4.5.3/win32-x64-64_binding.node
Cannot download "https://github.com/sass/node-sass/releases/download/v4.5.3/win32-x64-64_binding.node":
HTTP error 404 Not Found
Hint: If github.com is not accessible in your location
      try setting a proxy via HTTP_PROXY, e.g.
  export HTTP_PROXY=http://example.com:1234

or configure npm proxy via
  npm config set proxy http://example.com:8080

node-sass@4.5.3 postinstall C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\node-sass
  node scripts/build.js

Building: C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js rebuild --verbose --libsass_ext=
--libsass_cflags= --libsass_ldflags= --libsass_library=
gyp verb cli [ 'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe',
gyp verb cli   'C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js',
gyp verb cli   'rebuild',
gyp verb cli   '--verbose',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_ext=',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_cflags=',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_ldflags=',
gyp verb cli   '--libsass_library=' ]
gyp info using node-gyp@3.8.0
gyp info using node@10.15.3 | win32 | x64
gyp verb command rebuild []
gyp verb command clean []
gyp verb clean removing "build" directory
gyp verb command configure []
gyp verb check python checking for Python executable "python2" in the PATH
gyp verb `which` failed Error: not found: python2
gyp verb `which` failed     at getNotFoundError (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:13:12)
gyp verb `which` failed     at F (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:68:19)
gyp verb `which` failed     at E (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:80:29)
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:89:16
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\index.js:42:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\windows.js:36:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:153:21)
gyp verb `which` failed  python2 { Error: not found: python2
gyp verb `which` failed     at getNotFoundError (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:13:12)
gyp verb `which` failed     at F (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:68:19)
gyp verb `which` failed     at E (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:80:29)
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:89:16
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\index.js:42:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\windows.js:36:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:153:21)
gyp verb `which` failed   stack:
gyp verb `which` failed    'Error: not found: python2\n    at getNotFoundError (C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:13:12)\n    at F (C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:68:19)\n    at E (C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:80:29)\n    at C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:89:16\n    at C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\isexe\\index.js:42:5\n    at C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\isexe\\windows.js:36:5\n    at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:153:21)',
gyp verb `which` failed   code: 'ENOENT' }
gyp verb check python checking for Python executable "python" in the PATH
gyp verb `which` failed Error: not found: python
gyp verb `which` failed     at getNotFoundError (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:13:12)
gyp verb `which` failed     at F (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:68:19)
gyp verb `which` failed     at E (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:80:29)
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:89:16
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\index.js:42:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\windows.js:36:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:153:21)
gyp verb `which` failed  python { Error: not found: python
gyp verb `which` failed     at getNotFoundError (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:13:12)
gyp verb `which` failed     at F (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:68:19)
gyp verb `which` failed     at E (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:80:29)
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\which\which.js:89:16
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\index.js:42:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\isexe\windows.js:36:5
gyp verb `which` failed     at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:153:21)
gyp verb `which` failed   stack:
gyp verb `which` failed    'Error: not found: python\n    at getNotFoundError (C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:13:12)\n    at F (C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:68:19)\n    at E (C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:80:29)\n    at C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\which\\which.js:89:16\n    at C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\isexe\\index.js:42:5\n    at C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\isexe\\windows.js:36:5\n    at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:153:21)',
gyp verb `which` failed   code: 'ENOENT' }
gyp verb could not find "python". checking python launcher
gyp verb could not find "python". guessing location
gyp verb ensuring that file exists: C:\Python27\python.exe
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Can't find Python executable "python", you can set the PYTHON env variable.
gyp ERR! stack     at PythonFinder.failNoPython (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\configure.js:484:19)
gyp ERR! stack     at PythonFinder.<anonymous> (C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\configure.js:509:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\graceful-fs\polyfills.js:282:31
gyp ERR! stack     at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:153:21)
gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.17763
gyp ERR! command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\\feat\\Desktop\\expensify\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js" "rebuild" "--verbose" "--libsass_ext=" "--libsass_cflags=" "--libsass_ldflags=" "--libsass_library="
gyp ERR! cwd C:\Users\feat\Desktop\expensify\node_modules\node-sass
gyp ERR! node -v v10.15.3
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.8.0
gyp ERR! not ok
Build failed with error code: 1
npm WARN ajv-keywords@2.1.1 requires a peer of ajv@^5.0.0 but none is installed. You must install peer dependencies yourself.
npm WARN expensify@1.0.0 No description
npm WARN expensify@1.0.0 No repository field.
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@1.2.9 (node_modules\fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@1.2.9: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"win32","arch":"x64"})

npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! node-sass@4.5.3 postinstall: `node scripts/build.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the node-sass@4.5.3 postinstall script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\Users\feat\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2019-05-30T04_42_51_796Z-debug.log

Prior to this case all my attempts were resulting in an expected message that such package has been uninstalled. Now it gives out this message.

A:

this issue is resolved. probably the best solution is to wipe down the package.json, package0lock.json and node modules and install everything from scratch. most important part is to install separately node-sass with --save flag. --save is must in this case unlike with many other cases

