Comment # 2 on bug 1083199 from Adam Majer

The same problem exists with npm9,

gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir
'/usr/local/lib/node_modules/gitter-irc-bot/node_modules/iconv/build'
gyp ERR! System Linux 4.15.13-1-pae
gyp ERR! command "/usr/bin/node9"
"/usr/lib/node_modules/npm9/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /usr/local/lib/node_modules/gitter-irc-bot/node_modules/iconv
gyp ERR! node -v v9.10.1
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.6.2
gyp ERR! not ok