nvm related stuff

npm_cheat_sheet

#install from package.json
npm install 
#for vagrant
#npm install --no-bin-links

#install package
npm install --save <package_name>

npm_under_vagrant_window

ref: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21648068/what-permissions-do-i-need-to-install-bower-on-vagrant-on-windows

Self answering as I couldn't find a solution anywhere else on StackOverflow
I eventually got it to work via changing to the root user via su root and trying to install globally again. Apparently just using sudo wasn't enough.
So it became

root@precise32: npm install -g bower --no-bin-links

EDIT: As well as this solution please note the file directory + file size limitation when using Windows (260 characters I believe)
I have had to init a vagrant instance in a folder directly on my c:/ drive to get over this limitation as some packages end up having nested dependencies causing this limit to be exceeded. My problem was with grunt-contrib-less

EDIT 2: After coming across this problem again and again I'll add a bit more information for people here regarding node modules and vagrant under Windows.
I now overcome the file path limitation via putting any long dependency chains that fail due to path length (usually EPERM) I add one of the packages in the chain to my own package.json. This means the long requirement chain is split as npm does not re-install the package deeper in the tree if it's already installed.
Just make sure you require a version which is valid for the version string for the module.

The order of the dependencies in package.json does not matter, dependencies are resolved before anything is installed