Installing Node.js with `nvm` to Linux & macOS & WSL

A quick guide on how to setup Node.js development environment.

Install `nvm` for managing Node.js versions

nvm allows installing several versions of Node.js to the same system. Sometimes applications require a certain versions of Node.js to work. Having the flexibility of using specific versions can help.

Open new Terminal window.
Run nvm installer
- … with either curl or wget, depending on what your computer has available.
  - curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash
  - wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash
- The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm and adds the source line to your profile (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.bashrc). (You can add the source loading line manually, if the automated install tool does not add it for you.)
```
export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm
```
- Another option: when you have consistent directory location between systems, following example Bash/Zsh configuration allows to load nvm when the directory exists. This allows more consistent sharing of your shell configuration between systems, improving reliability of rest of your configuration even when nvm does not exist on a specific system.
```
if [ -d "$HOME/.nvm" ]; then
  # export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
  export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"

  # This loads nvm
  [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

  # This loads nvm bash_completion
  [ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"
fi
```
If everything went well, you should now either open a new Terminal window/tab, or reload the shell configuration by running:
- source ~/.bashrc
Verify installation
- To check if nvm command got installed, run:
  - command -v nvm
List installed Node.js versions with:
- nvm ls
Install latest LTS Version of Node.js (for production quality applications).
- nvm install v12.16.3
Install previous major Node.js release (if not all of your dependencies yet support v14).
- nvm install v13.14.0
Install latest Node.js Current release (for testing new feature improvements).
- nvm install v14.3.0
Install previous LTS release of Node.js LTS release (if you need to run older applications).
- nvm install v10.20.1
If you want to change the default Node version later, you can run a command to adjust it.
- nvm alias default v12.16.3 changelog (for production quality applications)
- nvm alias default v13.14.0 changelog
- nvm alias default v14.3.0 changelog (if you use Node.js features from the Current release)
- nvm alias default v10.20.1 changelog (if you need to use old version of Node.js for older projects)

You can select Node.js version by running nvm use v13.14.0 (or another version number). Another alternative: create a small Bash shell script to enable the right environment variables for your project.

Read the Node.js Long Term Support (LTS) schedule to have more understanding of their release roadmap. List of all previous releases is also useful for finding details about Node.js release history.

npm package repository has a lot of packages to discover. Have a good time with the freshly installed tools.

Migrating packages from a previous Node.js versions

If you already have existing Node.js version via nvm, you can migrate older packages from the installed Node.js versions.

Open new Terminal window (to make sure you have latest Node.js version active in your command line environment).
Before running next commands, remember to switch to the right version of Node with nvm use command. For example:
- nvm use v12.16.3
- nvm use v13.14.0
- nvm use v14.3.0
- nvm use v10.20.1
Linking global packages from previous version:
- nvm reinstall-packages v12.16.2
- nvm reinstall-packages v13.13.0
- nvm reinstall-packages v14.2.0
- nvm reinstall-packages v10.20.0

Deleting old Node.js versions

Check installed Node.js versions with:
- nvm ls
Delete an older version (if you don't use it in some of your projects):
- nvm uninstall v12.16.2
- nvm uninstall v13.13.0
- nvm uninstall v14.2.0
- nvm uninstall v10.20.0

Updating outdated packages

List of globally installed top level packages

npm ls -g --depth=0.

List outdated global packages

npm outdated -g --depth=0.

Updating all globally installed npm packages

npm update -g

CLI aliases for Bash & Zsh environments

Example configuration for your Bash & Zsh command line environments.

# -----------------------------------------------------------
# npm helpers
# -----------------------------------------------------------

# List what (top level) packages are installed globally
alias list-installed-npm-packages="npm ls -g --depth=0."

# List what globally installed packages are outdated
alias list-outdated-npm-packages="npm outdated -g --depth=0."

# Update outdated globally installed npm packages
alias update-npm-packages="npm update -g"

Fixing old package versions

If you have older npm packages with compiled native extensions, recompiling native extensions can improve compatibility with the new Node.js version. Go to your project’s root directory, and run npm rebuild command.

cd PROJECT_NAME
npm rebuild

Notes about this documentation

@d2s tested older versions of these install instructions with:

Contributions

If you have improvement suggestions to make these instructions simpler & better, post a comment under the original Gist by @d2s with your documentation improvement suggestions. If reading a forked version of the document, check the original Gist for a more recent instructions.

simonwhatley/installing-node-with-nvm.md

Installing Node.js with nvm to Linux & macOS & WSL

Install nvm for managing Node.js versions