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PNPM errors with "the global target of the pnpm shim points back at the shim" on MacOS #16874
Description
Verify latest release
- I verified that the issue exists in the latest pnpm release
pnpm version
12.11.2
Which area(s) of pnpm are affected? (leave empty if unsure)
No response
Link to the code that reproduces this issue or a replay of the bug
No response
Reproduction steps
- Install pnpm on Mac (bug found with M4 pro).
- Run
pnpm setup.
Running pnpm -v (or any pnpm command) now returns pnpm: the global target of the pnpm shim points back at the shim.
Describe the Bug
The bug stops PNPM from working. It just returns pnpm: the global target of the pnpm shim points back at the shim after each command.
I've managed to get it working again by running these two scripts:
rm -rf "$PNPM_HOME/global/v11/10d8-18ddd29b3747baa8-0"
rm -f "$PNPM_HOME/bin/.pnpm-shim-v1-pnpm-target" "$PNPM_HOME/bin/.pnpm-shim-v1-pn-target"Expected Behavior
Running pnpm -v should return v12.11.2
Which Node.js version are you using?
v24.21.0
Which operating systems have you used?
- macOS
- Windows
- Linux
If your OS is a Linux based, which one it is? (Include the version if relevant)
No response
Contributing a fix
- I am working on a fix
Activity
zkochan commentedon Oct 12, 2026
Thanks for the report and the workaround. I reproduced this with 12.11.2. It happens when
globalShimsenables pnpm.pnpm setupthen makes thepnpmshim and the bin of the globally installedpnpmpackage hard links of the same file, and the shim wrongly took that for a target pointing back at itself.#16880 fixes it, and it covers the whole issue. The shim now checks whether the target's path resolves to the shim's own path, so a hard link somewhere else runs normally. Until it's released, the workaround from the issue still works.
Written by an agent (Claude Code, claude-opus-5-5).
fix(shim): run a global target that is a hard link of the shim (pnpm#…