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Install And Run Any Node Version

March 30, 2020 by Areg Sarkissian

Installing NVM Node Version Manager

NVM is a bash script that is installed into your shell .profile or .bash_profile dotfile that manipulates the PATH variable to point to an installed version of node.

You can install NVM using the following curl command:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash

Below are the bash commands that get added to my .bash_profile file after running the curl command that downloads and runs the install.sh script:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm and prepends to $PATH variable
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"

The install script downloads the .nvm directory and adds it to the $HOME directory. The first line of the NVM lines added to the .bash_profile file, setup this directory for the following lines to use. The second NVM line checks for the existence of a downloaded nvm.sh script file in the $HOME/.nvmdirectory and sources the file if it exists which runs the script. The Last NVM line checks for the existence of a downloadedbash_completionscript file in the$HOME/.nvm directory and sources the file if it exists which runs the script.

These lines get executed when the bash profile file is sourced.

Note: You can move the NVM .bash_profile script to the appropriate dotfile on your system, as long as it gets executed at shell startup.

After installation you can check the installed version of NVM:

nvm --version

Note: To upgrade NVM we just have to re-run the installation curl command. Do not forget to source the updated .bash_profile file or start a new shell for the update to take effect.

You can find the NVM documentation here:

https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

Using NVM to install and switch between node versions

You can find all versions of node available to install from the node repo using:

nvm ls-remote

You can check installed versions of node using:

nvm ls

You can globally install the latest stable node version:

nvm install stable

Lets say one of the available versions of node is version 13.12.0.

We can install version 13.12.0 of node like so:

nvm install 13.12.0

We can also upgrade to latest version of npm at the same time by adding the --latest-npm flag:

nvm install 13.12.0 --latest-npm

We can show the path for installed version 13.12.0:

nvm which 13.12.0

We can show the current version of node being used:

nvm current

We can uninstall the installed version 13.12.0:

nvm uninstall 13.12.0

We can switch to using version of 13.12.0 node if we are currently using another version:

nvm use 13.12.0

Note: Every new shell session will revert back to using the latest installed node version. So we have to switch the version every time we launch a new terminal tab. See section Using NVM configuration files for using per project node versions below for methods to mitigate having to type the entire command every time.

We can upgrade to latest npm for the current version of node, in this case 13.12.0:

# installing the current version
nvm use 13.12.0
# some time later upgrade the npm version for version 13.12.0 of node
nvm install-latest-npm

An alternative way to upgrade npm is using its current version to upgrade itself

nvm use 13.12.0
#install the latest version globally
npm install -g npm@latest

Note: NPM package manager comes bundled with the ``NPX` node package runner so they are versioned together and upgraded to the latest version together.

Using NVM configuration files for using per project node versions

We can eliminate the need to specify the version node to use with the nvm use command on a per project basis if we add a .nvmrc file in our node project directory.

For example to use version 13.12.0 in your project, cd into your project directory and type:

touch .nvmrc
echo '13.12.0' > .nvmrc

Now every time you cd into the project directory, type:

nvm use

Since the version is not specified in the command, it will look for a version to use in the .nvmrc file.

You can set a bash alias alias nu=nvm use in your bash profile file to make this easier to type. With this command and a .nvmrc file in your project directory all you have to type is nu to switch to the node version specified in the .nvmrc file.

There are also hacks to make nvm use command execute automatically by aliasing the change directory (cd) command to check for the existence of the .nvmrc file and automatically run the nvm use command.

The following article talks about using node engines as an alternative to switching node versions:

https://medium.com/@faith__ngetich/locking-down-a-project-to-a-specific-node-version-using-nvmrc-and-or-engines-e5fd19144245

Checking NVM, Node, NPM , NPX versions

Installing node installs the NPM package manager and NPX package runner at the same time.

You can check the version of each:

# check global nvm version
nvm --version

# check current global node version
node -v

# check current global npm version
npm -v

# check current global npx version
npx -v

Installing Yarn

Yarn is an alternative to the npm package manager.

While you can install yarn via npm, it is recommended that you install it with your Operating System package manager.

Here is the MacOS install procedure using homebrew:

# install yarn globally
brew install yarn

# upgrade yarn
brew upgrade yarn

# check global yarn version
yarn --version

Resources

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/nodejs-node-version-manager