ubuntu16.04 にて，npmがMemory不足で落ちる．node@v4.2.6, npm@3.5.2

Question

症状

npmを実行しようとするとメモリ不足で落ちる．
nodenvで最新versionのnode及び，npmをインストールしてもだめでした．

$ npm
Error: ENOMEM: not enough memory, scandir '/home/maxmellon'
    at Error (native)

環境

freeコマンドでメモリを確認してみます

$ free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            31G        1.3G         27G         24M        2.9G         29G
Swap:           31G          0B         31G

27G 空いているので，メモリ不足は考えにくいと思っています．

$ node
> console.log('hoge')
hoge
undefined

console.log は問題なく動きました．

試しに，npm/npm を clone してきて，makeしてみました

$ ./configure
                                                                                                  
$  make
scripts/doc-build.sh doc/cli/npm-dist-tag.md man/man1/npm-dist-tag.1
make[1]: ディレクトリ '/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm' に入ります
node bin/npm-cli.js install marked-man --no-global --no-timing --no-save
Error: ENOMEM: not enough memory, scandir '/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm'
    at Error (native)
TypeError: Cannot read property 'get' of undefined
    at errorHandler (/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/utils/error-handler.js:213:17)
    at /home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/bin/npm-cli.js:83:20
    at cb (/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/npm.js:215:22)
    at /home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/npm.js:253:24
    at /home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/config/core.js:81:7
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at /home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/config/core.js:80:13
    at f (/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/node_modules/once/once.js:25:25)
    at /home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/config/core.js:110:20
    at /home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/config/load-prefix.js:48:7
/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/utils/error-handler.js:213
  if (npm.config.get('json')) {
                ^

TypeError: Cannot read property 'get' of undefined
    at process.errorHandler (/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm/lib/utils/error-handler.js:213:17)
    at emitOne (events.js:77:13)
    at process.emit (events.js:169:7)
    at process._fatalException (node.js:223:26)
Makefile:155: ターゲット 'node_modules/.bin/marked-man' のレシピで失敗しました
make[1]: *** [node_modules/.bin/marked-man] エラー 7
make[1]: ディレクトリ '/home/maxmellon/work/ghq/github.com/npm/npm' から出ます
Makefile:97: ターゲット 'man/man1/npm-dist-tag.1' のレシピで失敗しました
make: *** [man/man1/npm-dist-tag.1] エラー 2

npm@5系列は，node@4以降であれば使えるはずなんですが，メモリ不足で make に失敗しました．

その他

ruby 及び，pythonなどその他の言語は問題なく動いています．
npm だけ Memory不足で落ちていて検討もつかず困っています．

下記の環境で発生しています．

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04 LTS"

$ uname -a
Linux Zonta 4.4.0-21-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 18 18:33:37 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 58
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
stepping        : 9
microcode       : 0x1c
cpu MHz         : 1600.292
cache size      : 8192 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 8
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 4
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr ss
e sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good noplxtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmp
erf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt tsc_deadli
ne_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm epb tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase smep erms xsaveopt dther
m ida arat pln pts
bugs            :
bogomips        : 6999.93
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

                                                                                                               $ cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       32899036 kB
MemFree:        28498064 kB
MemAvailable:   31350084 kB
Buffers:          273580 kB
Cached:          2403940 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:          2859408 kB
Inactive:        1049008 kB
Active(anon):    1232260 kB
Inactive(anon):    23948 kB
Active(file):    1627148 kB
Inactive(file):  1025060 kB
Unevictable:          32 kB
Mlocked:              32 kB
SwapTotal:      33503228 kB
SwapFree:       33503228 kB
Dirty:                40 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:       1231048 kB
Mapped:           264760 kB
Shmem:             25316 kB
Slab:             331620 kB
SReclaimable:     285648 kB
SUnreclaim:        45972 kB
KernelStack:        8896 kB
PageTables:        33160 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:    49952744 kB
Committed_AS:    4388188 kB
VmallocTotal:   34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed:           0 kB
VmallocChunk:          0 kB
HardwareCorrupted:     0 kB
AnonHugePages:    456704 kB
CmaTotal:              0 kB
CmaFree:               0 kB
HugePages_Total:       0
HugePages_Free:        0
HugePages_Rsvd:        0
HugePages_Surp:        0
Hugepagesize:       2048 kB
DirectMap4k:      103340 kB
DirectMap2M:    33402880 kB

追記

memoryテストもしてみました

$ sudo memtester 1024 5         
memtester version 4.3.0 (64-bit)
Copyright (C) 2001-2012 Charles Cazabon.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (only).

pagesize is 4096
pagesizemask is 0xfffffffffffff000
want 1024MB (1073741824 bytes)
got  699MB (733724672 bytes), trying mlock ...locked.
Loop 1/5:
  Stuck Address       : ok         
  Random Value        : ok
  Compare XOR         : ok
  Compare SUB         : ok
  Compare MUL         : ok
  Compare DIV         : ok
  Compare OR          : ok
  Compare AND         : ok
  Sequential Increment: ok
  Solid Bits          : ok         
  Block Sequential    : ok         
  Checkerboard        : ok         
  Bit Spread          : ok         
  Bit Flip            : ok         
  Walking Ones        : ok         
  Walking Zeroes      : ok         
  8-bit Writes        : ok
  16-bit Writes       : ok

Loop 2/5:
  Stuck Address       : ok         
  Random Value        : ok
  Compare XOR         : ok
  Compare SUB         : ok
  Compare MUL         : ok
  Compare DIV         : ok
  Compare OR          : ok
  Compare AND         : ok
  Sequential Increment: ok
  Solid Bits          : ok         
  Block Sequential    : ok         
  Checkerboard        : ok         
  Bit Spread          : ok         
  Bit Flip            : ok         
  Walking Ones        : ok         
  Walking Zeroes      : ok         
  8-bit Writes        : ok
  16-bit Writes       : ok

Loop 3/5:
  Stuck Address       : ok         
  Random Value        : ok
  Compare XOR         : ok
  Compare SUB         : ok
  Compare MUL         : ok
  Compare DIV         : ok
  Compare OR          : ok
  Compare AND         : ok
  Sequential Increment: ok
  Solid Bits          : ok         
  Block Sequential    : ok         
  Checkerboard        : ok         
  Bit Spread          : ok         
  Bit Flip            : ok         
  Walking Ones        : ok         
  Walking Zeroes      : ok         
  8-bit Writes        : ok
  16-bit Writes       : ok

Loop 4/5:
  Stuck Address       : ok         
  Random Value        : ok
  Compare XOR         : ok
  Compare SUB         : ok
  Compare MUL         : ok
  Compare DIV         : ok
  Compare OR          : ok
  Compare AND         : ok
  Sequential Increment: ok
  Solid Bits          : ok         
  Block Sequential    : ok         
  Checkerboard        : ok         
  Bit Spread          : ok         
  Bit Flip            : ok         
  Walking Ones        : ok         
  Walking Zeroes      : ok         
  8-bit Writes        : ok
  16-bit Writes       : ok

Loop 5/5:
  Stuck Address       : ok         
  Random Value        : ok
  Compare XOR         : ok
  Compare SUB         : ok
  Compare MUL         : ok
  Compare DIV         : ok
  Compare OR          : ok
  Compare AND         : ok
  Sequential Increment: ok
  Solid Bits          : ok         
  Block Sequential    : ok         
  Checkerboard        : ok         
  Bit Spread          : ok         
  Bit Flip            : ok         
  Walking Ones        : ok         
  Walking Zeroes      : ok         
  8-bit Writes        : ok
  16-bit Writes       : ok

Done.

Answer 1

原因

.bashrc 内にて ulimit コマンドで使用できるメモリ量を制限していました．
8GBのノートパソコン用の設定を書いていたので，メモリ量が3倍もあるデスクトップで
その設定ファイルを利用すると，制限が小さすぎてだめみたいでした．