What is a spawn ENOENT?

Node.js throws a spawn ENOENT error when child_process.spawn() cannot find the executable specified. This is the process spawning equivalent of ENOENT for files: the binary does not exist at any location in the system PATH.

Why it happens

• •The executable name is wrong or uses a different name on this OS (python vs python3).
• •The tool is not installed on the system.
• •The tool is installed but not in the PATH environment variable.
• •On Windows, missing the .exe extension or using Unix-style paths.

Examples

const { spawn } = require("child_process");
const proc = spawn("python", ["script.py"]);
proc.on("error", console.error);

Error: spawn python ENOENT
    errno: -2,
    code: 'ENOENT',
    syscall: 'spawn python',
    path: 'python'

const { spawn } = require("child_process");
// Use 'python3' on systems where python3 is the correct binary
const proc = spawn("python3", ["script.py"]);
proc.on("error", (err) => {
  if (err.code === "ENOENT") {
    console.error("python3 not found in PATH");
  }
});

Related errors

• ENOENT: no such file or directory
• FileNotFoundError
• CalledProcessError