title: for npm install from folder gives git error for wikimedia packages despite dependencies already being installed (shared hosting)
body: <p>Npm install on wikimedia packages (parsoid, restbase, plus service-runner and limitation) fails with a git error, despite having copied the source files in advance, and running </p>
  
  <p><code>npm install &lt;folder&gt;</code>
  or
  <code>npm install</code> from the actual folder, which has a package.json
  or</p>
  
  <p><code>npm install -g --only=prod --verbose limitation</code></p>
  
  <p>The dependencies giving errors are sometimes direct dependencies, sometimes dependencies of dependencies.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Setup</strong>
   - linux / CentrOS 6</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>git installed by ISP on shared host, git re-install fails</p></li>
  <li><p>no admin rights since shared hosting</p></li>
  <li><p>node 11.12.0, npm 6.9.0</p></li>
  <li><p>only wikimedia packages fail, but not all wikimedia packages</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Steps tried</strong>
   - installing only production dependencies </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p><code>npm cache verify</code> plus deleting relevant node_module and .npm folders before install</p></li>
  <li><p>editing package.json to replace git link for dependencies with just the versions, eg for kad <code>2.5.1</code></p></li>
  <li><p>latest version of npm and node</p></li>
  <li><p>reinstall of node/nvm/npm</p></li>
  <li><p>also failed with node v11.11.0</p></li>
  <li><p>using npm list to check any dependency issues and fix in advance</p></li>
  <li><p>git fix by swapping to http or git protocols failed with same error</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Dependencies being looked for include</strong></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>pegjs</p></li>
  <li><p>kad</p></li>
  <li><p>content-type</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Example error log: limitation package</strong>
  (3 dependencies, including bluebird, kad, readable-stream)</p>
  
  <p><code>135 http fetch GET 200 http://registry.npmjs.org/readable-stream 17ms (from cache)
  136 silly pacote range manifest for readable-stream@^2.0.5 fetched in 25ms
  137 silly resolveWithNewModule readable-stream@2.3.6 checking installable status
  138 silly fetchPackageMetaData error for kad@git+https://github.com/wikimedia/kad.git#master Error while executing:
  138 silly fetchPackageMetaData /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/lib/path-bin/git ls-remote -h -t https://github.com/wikimedia/kad.git
  138 silly fetchPackageMetaData
  138 silly fetchPackageMetaData fatal: Unable to find remote helper for 'https'
  138 silly fetchPackageMetaData
  138 silly fetchPackageMetaData exited with error code: 128
  139 timing stage:rollbackFailedOptional Completed in 1ms
  140 timing stage:runTopLevelLifecycles Completed in 4749ms
  141 verbose stack Error: exited with error code: 128
  141 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.&lt;anonymous&gt; (/home/mousey/.nvm/.nvm/versions/node/v11.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/util/finished.js:12:19)
  141 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:197:13)
  141 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:988:16)
  141 verbose stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:265:5)
  142 verbose cwd /home/mousey/.nvm/.nvm/versions/node/v11.12.0/lib/node_modules
  143 verbose Linux 2.6.32-896.16.1.lve1.4.54.el6.x86_64
  144 verbose argv "/home/mousey/.nvm/.nvm/versions/node/v11.12.0/bin/node" "/home/mousey/.nvm/.nvm/versions/node/v11.12.0/bin/npm" "install" "-g" "--save" "--verbose" "--only=prod" "service-runner"
  145 verbose node v11.12.0
  146 verbose npm  v6.9.0
  147 error Error while executing:
  147 error /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/lib/path-bin/git ls-remote -h -t https://github.com/wikimedia/kad.git
  147 error
  147 error fatal: Unable to find remote helper for 'https'
  147 error
  147 error exited with error code: 128
  148 verbose exit [ 1, true ]
  </code></p>