nvm
Node Version Manager
Table of Contents
- Intro
- About
- Installing and Updating
- Usage
- Running Tests
- Environment variables
- Bash Completion
- Compatibility Issues
- Installing nvm on Alpine Linux
- Uninstalling / Removal
- Docker For Development Environment
- Problems
- macOS Troubleshooting
- WSL Troubleshooting
- Maintainers
- Project Support
- Enterprise Support
- License
- Copyright notice
Intro
allows you to quickly install and use different versions of node via the command line.
Example:
$ nvm use 16Now using node v16.9.1 (npm v7.21.1)$ node -vv16.9.1$ nvm use 14Now using node v14.18.0 (npm v6.14.15)$ node -vv14.18.0$ nvm install 12Now using node v12.22.6 (npm v6.14.5)$ node -vv12.22.6
Simple as that!
About
nvm is a version manager for node.js, designed to be installed per-user, and invoked per-shell.
works on any POSIX-compliant shell (sh, dash, ksh, zsh, bash), in particular on these platforms: unix, macOS, and windows WSL.
Installing and Updating
Install & Update Script
To install or update nvm, you should run the install script. To do that, you may either download and run the script manually, or use the following cURL or Wget command:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
Running either of the above commands downloads a script and runs it. The script clones the nvm repository to
, and attempts to add the source lines from the snippet below to the correct profile file (
,
,
, or
).
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
Additional Notes
-
If the environment variable
is present, it will place the$XDG_CONFIG_HOME
files there.nvm -
You can add
to the end of the above script (...--no-use
) to postpone usingnvm.sh --no-use
until you manuallynvm
it.use -
You can customize the install source, directory, profile, and version using the
,NVM_SOURCE
,NVM_DIR
, andPROFILE
variables. Eg:NODE_VERSION
. Ensure that thecurl ... | NVM_DIR="path/to/nvm"
does not contain a trailing slash.NVM_DIR -
The installer can use
,git
, orcurl
to downloadwget
, whichever is available.nvm -
You can instruct the installer to not edit your shell config (for example if you already get completions via a zsh nvm plugin) by setting
before running thePROFILE=/dev/null
script. Here's an example one-line command to do that:install.shPROFILE=/dev/null bash -c 'curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash'
Troubleshooting on Linux
On Linux, after running the install script, if you get
or see no feedback from your terminal after you type
, simply close your current terminal, open a new terminal, and try verifying again.
Alternatively, you can run the following commands for the different shells on the command line:
bash:
zsh:
ksh:
These should pick up the
command.
Troubleshooting on macOS
Since OS X 10.9,
has been preset by Xcode command line tools, which means we can't properly detect if Git is installed or not. You need to manually install the Xcode command line tools before running the install script, otherwise, it'll fail. (see #1782)
If you get
after running the install script, one of the following might be the reason:
-
Since macOS 10.15, the default shell is
and nvm will look forzsh
to update, none is installed by default. Create one with.zshrc
and run the install script again.touch ~/.zshrc -
If you use bash, the previous default shell, your system may not have
or.bash_profile
files where the command is set up. Create one of them with.bashrc
ortouch ~/.bash_profile
and run the install script again. Then, runtouch ~/.bashrc
or. ~/.bash_profile
to pick up the. ~/.bashrc
command.nvm -
You have previously used
, but you havebash
installed. You need to manually add these lines tozsh
and run~/.zshrc
.. ~/.zshrc -
You might need to restart your terminal instance or run
. Restarting your terminal/opening a new tab/window, or running the source command will load the command and the new configuration.. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh -
If the above didn't help, you might need to restart your terminal instance. Try opening a new tab/window in your terminal and retry.
If the above doesn't fix the problem, you may try the following:
-
If you use bash, it may be that your
(or.bash_profile
) does not source your~/.profile
properly. You could fix this by adding~/.bashrc
to it or following the next step below.source ~/<your_profile_file> -
Try adding the snippet from the install section, that finds the correct nvm directory and loads nvm, to your usual profile (
,~/.bash_profile
,~/.zshrc
, or~/.profile
).~/.bashrc -
For more information about this issue and possible workarounds, please refer here
Note For Macs with the Apple Silicon chip, node started offering arm64 arch Darwin packages since v16.0.0 and experimental arm64 support when compiling from source since v14.17.0. If you are facing issues installing node using
, you may want to update to one of those versions or later.
Ansible
You can use a task:
- name: Install nvm ansible.builtin.shell: > curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash args: creates: "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.nvm/nvm.sh"
Verify Installation
To verify that nvm has been installed, do:
command -v nvm
which should output
if the installation was successful. Please note that
will not work, since
is a sourced shell function, not an executable binary.
Note: On Linux, after running the install script, if you get
or see no feedback from your terminal after you type
, simply close your current terminal, open a new terminal, and try verifying again.
Important Notes
If you're running a system without prepackaged binary available, which means you're going to install node or io.js from its source code, you need to make sure your system has a C++ compiler. For OS X, Xcode will work, for Debian/Ubuntu based GNU/Linux, the
and
packages work.
Note:
also supports Windows in some cases. It should work through WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) depending on the version of WSL. It should also work with GitBash (MSYS) or Cygwin. Otherwise, for Windows, a few alternatives exist, which are neither supported nor developed by us:
Note:
does not support Fish either (see #303). Alternatives exist, which are neither supported nor developed by us:
- bass allows you to use utilities written for Bash in fish shell
- fast-nvm-fish only works with version numbers (not aliases) but doesn't significantly slow your shell startup
- plugin-nvm plugin for Oh My Fish, which makes nvm and its completions available in fish shell
- fnm - fisherman-based version manager for fish
- fish-nvm - Wrapper around nvm for fish, delays sourcing nvm until it's actually used.
Note: We still have some problems with FreeBSD, because there is no official pre-built binary for FreeBSD, and building from source may need patches; see the issue ticket:
Note: On OS X, if you do not have Xcode installed and you do not wish to download the ~4.3GB file, you can install the
. You can check out this blog post on how to just that:
Note: On OS X, if you have/had a "system" node installed and want to install modules globally, keep in mind that:
- When using
you do not neednvm
to globally install a module withsudo
, so instead of doingnpm -g
, do insteadsudo npm install -g gruntnpm install -g grunt - If you have an
file, make sure it does not contain any~/.npmrc
settings (which is not compatible withprefix
)nvm - You can (but should not?) keep your previous "system" node install, but
will only be available to your user account (the one used to install nvm). This might cause version mismatches, as other users will be usingnvm
VS your user account using/usr/local/lib/node_modules/*~/.nvm/versions/node/vX.X.X/lib/node_modules/*
Homebrew installation is not supported. If you have issues with homebrew-installed
, please
it, and install it using the instructions below, before filing an issue.
Note: If you're using
you can easily install
as a zsh plugin. Install
and run
to upgrade.
Note: Git versions before v1.7 may face a problem of cloning
source from GitHub via https protocol, and there is also different behavior of git before v1.6, and git prior to v1.17.10 can not clone tags, so the minimum required git version is v1.7.10. If you are interested in the problem we mentioned here, please refer to GitHub's HTTPS cloning errors article.
Git Install
If you have
installed (requires git v1.7.10+):
- clone this repo in the root of your user profile
from anywhere thencd ~/git clone https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm.git .nvm
and check out the latest version withcd ~/.nvmgit checkout v0.40.1- activate
by sourcing it from your shell:nvm. ./nvm.sh
Now add these lines to your
,
, or
file to have it automatically sourced upon login:
(you may have to add to more than one of the above files)
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" # This loads nvm bash_completion
Manual Install
For a fully manual install, execute the following lines to first clone the
repository into
, and then load
:
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm" && ( git clone https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm.git "$NVM_DIR" cd "$NVM_DIR" git checkout `git describe --abbrev=0 --tags --match "v[0-9]*" $(git rev-list --tags --max-count=1)`) && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
Now add these lines to your
,
, or
file to have it automatically sourced upon login:
(you may have to add to more than one of the above files)
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" # This loads nvm bash_completion
Manual Upgrade
For manual upgrade with
(requires git v1.7.10+):
- change to the $NVM_DIR
- pull down the latest changes
- check out the latest version
- activate the new version
( cd "$NVM_DIR" git fetch --tags origin git checkout `git describe --abbrev=0 --tags --match "v[0-9]*" $(git rev-list --tags --max-count=1)`) && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
Usage
To download, compile, and install the latest release of node, do this:
nvm install node # "node" is an alias for the latest version
To install a specific version of node:
nvm install 14.7.0 # or 16.3.0, 12.22.1, etc
To set an alias:
nvm alias my_alias v14.4.0
Make sure that your alias does not contain any spaces or slashes.
The first version installed becomes the default. New shells will start with the default version of node (e.g.,
).
You can list available versions using
:
nvm ls-remote
And then in any new shell just use the installed version:
nvm use node
Or you can just run it:
nvm run node --version
Or, you can run any arbitrary command in a subshell with the desired version of node:
nvm exec 4.2 node --version
You can also get the path to the executable to where it was installed:
nvm which 12.22
In place of a version pointer like "14.7" or "16.3" or "12.22.1", you can use the following special default aliases with
,
,
,
,
, etc:
: this installs the latest version ofnodenode
: this installs the latest version ofiojsio.js
: this alias is deprecated, and only truly applies tostablenode
and earlier. Currently, this is an alias forv0.12
.node
: this alias points tounstablenode
- the last "unstable" node release, since post-1.0, all node versions are stable. (in SemVer, versions communicate breakage, not stability).v0.11
Long-term Support
Node has a schedule for long-term support (LTS) You can reference LTS versions in aliases and
files with the notation
for the latest LTS, and
for LTS releases from the "argon" line, for example. In addition, the following commands support LTS arguments:
/nvm install --lts
/nvm install --lts=argon
/nvm install 'lts/*'nvm install lts/argon
/nvm uninstall --lts
/nvm uninstall --lts=argon
/nvm uninstall 'lts/*'nvm uninstall lts/argon
/nvm use --lts
/nvm use --lts=argon
/nvm use 'lts/*'nvm use lts/argon
/nvm exec --lts
/nvm exec --lts=argon
/nvm exec 'lts/*'nvm exec lts/argon
/nvm run --lts
/nvm run --lts=argon
/nvm run 'lts/*'nvm run lts/argon
/nvm ls-remote --ltsnvm ls-remote --lts=argon
/nvm ls-remote 'lts/*'nvm ls-remote lts/argon
/nvm version-remote --lts
/nvm version-remote --lts=argon
/nvm version-remote 'lts/*'nvm version-remote lts/argon
Any time your local copy of
connects to https://nodejs.org, it will re-create the appropriate local aliases for all available LTS lines. These aliases (stored under
), are managed by
, and you should not modify, remove, or create these files - expect your changes to be undone, and expect meddling with these files to cause bugs that will likely not be supported.
To get the latest LTS version of node and migrate your existing installed packages, use
nvm install --reinstall-packages-from=current 'lts/*'
Migrating Global Packages While Installing
If you want to install a new version of Node.js and migrate npm packages from a previous version:
nvm install --reinstall-packages-from=node node
This will first use "nvm version node" to identify the current version you're migrating packages from. Then it resolves the new version to install from the remote server and installs it. Lastly, it runs "nvm reinstall-packages" to reinstall the npm packages from your prior version of Node to the new one.
You can also install and migrate npm packages from specific versions of Node like this:
nvm install --reinstall-packages-from=5 6nvm install --reinstall-packages-from=iojs v4.2
Note that reinstalling packages explicitly does not update the npm version — this is to ensure that npm isn't accidentally upgraded to a broken version for the new node version.
To update npm at the same time add the
flag, like this:
nvm install --reinstall-packages-from=default --latest-npm 'lts/*'
or, you can at any time run the following command to get the latest supported npm version on the current node version:
nvm install-latest-npm
If you've already gotten an error to the effect of "npm does not support Node.js", you'll need to (1) revert to a previous node version (
&
), (2) delete the newly created node version (
), then (3) rerun your
with the
flag.
Default Global Packages From File While Installing
If you have a list of default packages you want installed every time you install a new version, we support that too -- just add the package names, one per line, to the file
. You can add anything npm would accept as a package argument on the command line.
# $NVM_DIR/default-packages
rimrafobject-inspect@1.0.2stevemao/left-pad
io.js
If you want to install io.js:
nvm install iojs
If you want to install a new version of io.js and migrate npm packages from a previous version:
nvm install --reinstall-packages-from=iojs iojs
The same guidelines mentioned for migrating npm packages in node are applicable to io.js.
System Version of Node
If you want to use the system-installed version of node, you can use the special default alias "system":
nvm use systemnvm run system --version
Listing Versions
If you want to see what versions are installed:
nvm ls
If you want to see what versions are available to install:
nvm ls-remote
Setting Custom Colors
You can set five colors that will be used to display version and alias information. These colors replace the default colors. Initial colors are: g b y r e
Color codes:
r/R = red / bold red
g/G = green / bold green
b/B = blue / bold blue
c/C = cyan / bold cyan
m/M = magenta / bold magenta
y/Y = yellow / bold yellow
k/K = black / bold black
e/W = light grey / white
nvm set-colors rgBcm
Persisting custom colors
If you want the custom colors to persist after terminating the shell, export the
variable in your shell profile. For example, if you want to use cyan, magenta, green, bold red and bold yellow, add the following line:
export NVM_COLORS='cmgRY'
Suppressing colorized output
,
,
and
usually produce colorized output. You can disable colors with the
option (or by setting the environment variable
):
nvm ls --no-colorsnvm help --no-colorsTERM=dumb nvm ls
Restoring PATH
To restore your PATH, you can deactivate it:
nvm deactivate
Set default node version
To set a default Node version to be used in any new shell, use the alias 'default':
nvm alias default node # this refers to the latest installed version of nodenvm alias default 18 # this refers to the latest installed v18.x version of nodenvm alias default 18.12 # this refers to the latest installed v18.12.x version of node
Use a mirror of node binaries
To use a mirror of the node binaries, set
:
export NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR=https://nodejs.org/distnvm install node
NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR=https://nodejs.org/dist nvm install 4.2
To use a mirror of the io.js binaries, set
:
export NVM_IOJS_ORG_MIRROR=https://iojs.org/distnvm install iojs-v1.0.3
NVM_IOJS_ORG_MIRROR=https://iojs.org/dist nvm install iojs-v1.0.3
will not, by default, create a "current" symlink. Set
to "true" to enable this behavior, which is sometimes useful for IDEs. Note that using
in multiple shell tabs with this environment variable enabled can cause race conditions.
Pass Authorization header to mirror
To pass an Authorization header through to the mirror url, set
NVM_AUTH_HEADER="Bearer secret-token" nvm install node
.nvmrc
You can create a
file containing a node version number (or any other string that
understands; see
for details) in the project root directory (or any parent directory).
Afterwards,
,
,
,
, and
will use the version specified in the
file if no version is supplied on the command line.
For example, to make nvm default to the latest 5.9 release, the latest LTS version, or the latest node version for the current directory:
$ echo "5.9" > .nvmrc
$ echo "lts/*" > .nvmrc # to default to the latest LTS version
$ echo "node" > .nvmrc # to default to the latest version
[NB these examples assume a POSIX-compliant shell version of
. If you use a Windows
development environment, eg the
file is used to configure a remote Linux deployment, then keep in mind the
s will be copied leading to an invalid file. Remove them.]
Then when you run nvm use:
$ nvm useFound '/path/to/project/.nvmrc' with version <5.9>Now using node v5.9.1 (npm v3.7.3)
Running nvm install will also switch over to the correct version, but if the correct node version isn't already installed, it will install it for you.
$ nvm installFound '/path/to/project/.nvmrc' with version <5.9>Downloading and installing node v5.9.1...Downloading https://nodejs.org/dist/v5.9.1/node-v5.9.1-linux-x64.tar.xz...#################################################################################### 100.0%Computing checksum with sha256sumChecksums matched!Now using node v5.9.1 (npm v3.7.3)
et. al. will traverse directory structure upwards from the current directory looking for the
file. In other words, running
et. al. in any subdirectory of a directory with an
will result in that
being utilized.
The contents of a
file must contain precisely one
(as described by
) followed by a newline.
files may also have comments. The comment delimiter is
, and it and any text after it, as well as blank lines, and leading and trailing white space, will be ignored when parsing.
Key/value pairs using
are also allowed and ignored, but are reserved for future use, and may cause validation errors in the future.
Run
to validate an
file. If that tool’s results do not agree with nvm, one or the other has a bug - please file an issue.
Deeper Shell Integration
You can use
to deeply integrate into your shell and automatically invoke
when changing directories.
is not supported by the
maintainers. Please report issues to the
team.
You can also use
to shim the
,
, and
bins to automatically use the
config in the current directory.
is not supported by the
maintainers. Please report issues to the
team.
If you prefer a lighter-weight solution, the recipes below have been contributed by
users. They are not supported by the
maintainers. We are, however, accepting pull requests for more examples.
Calling nvm use
automatically in a directory with a .nvmrc
file
In your profile (
,
,
, or
), add the following to
whenever you enter a new directory:
bash
Put the following at the end of your
:
cdnvm() { command cd "$@" || return $? nvm_path="$(nvm_find_up .nvmrc | command tr -d '\n')"
# If there are no .nvmrc file, use the default nvm version if [[ ! $nvm_path = *[^[:space:]]* ]]; then
declare default_version default_version="$(nvm version default)"
# If there is no default version, set it to `node` # This will use the latest version on your machine if [ $default_version = 'N/A' ]; then nvm alias default node default_version=$(nvm version default) fi
# If the current version is not the default version, set it to use the default version if [ "$(nvm current)" != "${default_version}" ]; then nvm use default fi elif [[ -s "${nvm_path}/.nvmrc" && -r "${nvm_path}/.nvmrc" ]]; then declare nvm_version nvm_version=$(<"${nvm_path}"/.nvmrc)
declare locally_resolved_nvm_version # `nvm ls` will check all locally-available versions # If there are multiple matching versions, take the latest one # Remove the `->` and `*` characters and spaces # `locally_resolved_nvm_version` will be `N/A` if no local versions are found locally_resolved_nvm_version=$(nvm ls --no-colors "${nvm_version}" | command tail -1 | command tr -d '\->*' | command tr -d '[:space:]')
# If it is not already installed, install it # `nvm install` will implicitly use the newly-installed version if [ "${locally_resolved_nvm_version}" = 'N/A' ]; then nvm install "${nvm_version}"; elif [ "$(nvm current)" != "${locally_resolved_nvm_version}" ]; then nvm use "${nvm_version}"; fi fi}
alias cd='cdnvm'cdnvm "$PWD" || exit
This alias would search 'up' from your current directory in order to detect a
file. If it finds it, it will switch to that version; if not, it will use the default version.
zsh
This shell function will install (if needed) and
the specified Node version when an
is found, and
otherwise.
Put this into your
to call
automatically whenever you enter a directory that contains an
file with a string telling nvm which node to
:
# place this after nvm initialization!autoload -U add-zsh-hook
load-nvmrc() { local nvmrc_path nvmrc_path="$(nvm_find_nvmrc)"
if [ -n "$nvmrc_path" ]; then local nvmrc_node_version nvmrc_node_version=$(nvm version "$(cat "${nvmrc_path}")")
if [ "$nvmrc_node_version" = "N/A" ]; then nvm install elif [ "$nvmrc_node_version" != "$(nvm version)" ]; then nvm use fi elif [ -n "$(PWD=$OLDPWD nvm_find_nvmrc)" ] && [ "$(nvm version)" != "$(nvm version default)" ]; then echo "Reverting to nvm default version" nvm use default fi}
add-zsh-hook chpwd load-nvmrcload-nvmrc
fish
This requires that you have bass installed.
# ~/.config/fish/functions/nvm.fishfunction nvm bass source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh --no-use ';' nvm $argvend
# ~/.config/fish/functions/nvm_find_nvmrc.fishfunction nvm_find_nvmrc bass source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh --no-use ';' nvm_find_nvmrcend
# ~/.config/fish/functions/load_nvm.fishfunction load_nvm --on-variable="PWD" set -l default_node_version (nvm version default) set -l node_version (nvm version) set -l nvmrc_path (nvm_find_nvmrc) if test -n "$nvmrc_path" set -l nvmrc_node_version (nvm version (cat $nvmrc_path)) if test "$nvmrc_node_version" = "N/A" nvm install (cat $nvmrc_path) else if test "$nvmrc_node_version" != "$node_version" nvm use $nvmrc_node_version end else if test "$node_version" != "$default_node_version" echo "Reverting to default Node version" nvm use default endend
# ~/.config/fish/config.fish# You must call it on initialization or listening to directory switching won't workload_nvm > /dev/stderr
Running Tests
Tests are written in Urchin. Install Urchin (and other dependencies) like so:
npm install
There are slow tests and fast tests. The slow tests do things like install node and check that the right versions are used. The fast tests fake this to test things like aliases and uninstalling. From the root of the nvm git repository, run the fast tests like this:
npm run test/fast
Run the slow tests like this:
npm run test/slow
Run all of the tests like this:
npm test
Nota bene: Avoid running nvm while the tests are running.
Environment variables
nvm exposes the following environment variables:
- nvm's installation directory.NVM_DIR
- where node, npm, and global packages for the active version of node are installed.NVM_BIN
- node's include file directory (useful for building C/C++ addons for node).NVM_INC
- used to maintain compatibility with zsh.NVM_CD_FLAGS
- version from .nvmrc file if being used.NVM_RC_VERSION
Additionally, nvm modifies
, and, if present,
and
when changing versions.
Bash Completion
To activate, you need to source
:
[[ -r $NVM_DIR/bash_completion ]] && \. $NVM_DIR/bash_completion
Put the above sourcing line just below the sourcing line for nvm in your profile (
,
).
Usage
nvm:
Tab
$ nvm
alias deactivate install list-remote reinstall-packages uninstall versioncache exec install-latest-npm ls run unload version-remotecurrent help list ls-remote unalias use which
nvm alias:
Tab
$ nvm alias
default iojs lts/* lts/argon lts/boron lts/carbon lts/dubnium lts/erbium node stable unstable
Tab
$ nvm alias my_alias
v10.22.0 v12.18.3 v14.8.0
nvm use:
Tab
$ nvm use
my_alias default v10.22.0 v12.18.3 v14.8.0
nvm uninstall:
Tab
$ nvm uninstall
my_alias default v10.22.0 v12.18.3 v14.8.0
Compatibility Issues
will encounter some issues if you have some non-default settings set. (see #606)
The following are known to cause issues:
Inside
:
prefix='some/path'
Environment Variables:
$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX$PREFIX
Shell settings:
set -e
Installing nvm on Alpine Linux
In order to provide the best performance (and other optimizations), nvm will download and install pre-compiled binaries for Node (and npm) when you run
. The Node project compiles, tests and hosts/provides these pre-compiled binaries which are built for mainstream/traditional Linux distributions (such as Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, RedHat et al).
Alpine Linux, unlike mainstream/traditional Linux distributions, is based on BusyBox, a very compact (~5MB) Linux distribution. BusyBox (and thus Alpine Linux) uses a different C/C++ stack to most mainstream/traditional Linux distributions - musl. This makes binary programs built for such mainstream/traditional incompatible with Alpine Linux, thus we cannot simply
on Alpine Linux and expect the downloaded binary to run correctly - you'll likely see "...does not exist" errors if you try that.
There is a
flag for
which requests nvm download Node source and compile it locally.
If installing nvm on Alpine Linux is still what you want or need to do, you should be able to achieve this by running the following from you Alpine Linux shell, depending on which version you are using:
Alpine Linux 3.13+
apk add -U curl bash ca-certificates openssl ncurses coreutils python3 make gcc g++ libgcc linux-headers grep util-linux binutils findutilscurl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
Alpine Linux 3.5 - 3.12
apk add -U curl bash ca-certificates openssl ncurses coreutils python2 make gcc g++ libgcc linux-headers grep util-linux binutils findutilscurl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
Note: Alpine 3.5 can only install NodeJS versions up to v6.9.5, Alpine 3.6 can only install versions up to v6.10.3, Alpine 3.7 installs versions up to v8.9.3, Alpine 3.8 installs versions up to v8.14.0, Alpine 3.9 installs versions up to v10.19.0, Alpine 3.10 installs versions up to v10.24.1, Alpine 3.11 installs versions up to v12.22.6, Alpine 3.12 installs versions up to v12.22.12, Alpine 3.13 & 3.14 install versions up to v14.20.0, Alpine 3.15 & 3.16 install versions up to v16.16.0 (These are all versions on the main branch). Alpine 3.5 - 3.12 required the package
to build NodeJS, as they are older versions to build. Alpine 3.13+ requires
to successfully build newer NodeJS versions, but you can use
with Alpine 3.13+ if you need to build versions of node supported in Alpine 3.5 - 3.15, you just need to specify what version of NodeJS you need to install in the package install script.
The Node project has some desire but no concrete plans (due to the overheads of building, testing and support) to offer Alpine-compatible binaries.
As a potential alternative, @mhart (a Node contributor) has some Docker images for Alpine Linux with Node and optionally, npm, pre-installed.
Uninstalling / Removal
Manual Uninstall
To remove
manually, execute the following:
First, use
to remove the nvm command from your terminal session and delete the installation directory:
$ nvm_dir="${NVM_DIR:-~/.nvm}"$ nvm unload$ rm -rf "$nvm_dir"
Edit
(or other shell resource config) and remove the lines below:
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm[[ -r $NVM_DIR/bash_completion ]] && \. $NVM_DIR/bash_completion
Docker For Development Environment
To make the development and testing work easier, we have a Dockerfile for development usage, which is based on Ubuntu 18.04 base image, prepared with essential and useful tools for
development, to build the docker image of the environment, run the docker command at the root of
repository:
$ docker build -t nvm-dev .
This will package your current nvm repository with our pre-defined development environment into a docker image named
, once it's built with success, validate your image via
:
$ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZEnvm-dev latest 9ca4c57a97d8 7 days ago 650 MB
If you got no error message, now you can easily involve in:
$ docker run -h nvm-dev -it nvm-dev
nvm@nvm-dev:~/.nvm$
Please note that it'll take about 8 minutes to build the image and the image size would be about 650MB, so it's not suitable for production usage.
For more information and documentation about docker, please refer to its official website:
Problems
-
If you try to install a node version and the installation fails, be sure to run
to delete cached node downloads, or you might get an error like the following:nvm cache clearcurl: (33) HTTP server doesn't seem to support byte ranges. Cannot resume.
-
Where's my
? Check out #43sudo node -
After the v0.8.6 release of node, nvm tries to install from binary packages. But in some systems, the official binary packages don't work due to incompatibility of shared libs. In such cases, use
option to force install from source:-s
nvm install -s 0.8.6
- If setting the
alias does not establish the node version in new shells (i.e.default
yieldsnvm current
), ensure that the system's nodesystem
is set before thePATH
source line in your shell profile (see #658)nvm.sh
macOS Troubleshooting
nvm node version not found in vim shell
If you set node version to a version other than your system node version
and open vim and run
you should see
if you see your system version
. You need to run:
sudo chmod ugo-x /usr/libexec/path_helper
More on this issue in dotphiles/dotzsh.
nvm is not compatible with the npm config "prefix" option
Some solutions for this issue can be found here
There is one more edge case causing this issue, and that's a mismatch between the
path and the user's home directory's actual name.
You have to make sure that the user directory name in
and the user directory name you'd see from running
are capitalized the same way (See this issue).
To change the user directory and/or account name follow the instructions here
Homebrew makes zsh directories unsecure
zsh compinit: insecure directories, run compaudit for list.Ignore insecure directories and continue [y] or abort compinit [n]? y
Homebrew causes insecure directories like
and
. This is not an
problem - it is a homebrew problem. Refer here for some solutions related to the issue.
Macs with Apple Silicon chips
Experimental support for the Apple Silicon chip architecture was added in node.js v15.3 and full support was added in v16.0. Because of this, if you try to install older versions of node as usual, you will probably experience either compilation errors when installing node or out-of-memory errors while running your code.
So, if you want to run a version prior to v16.0 on an Apple Silicon Mac, it may be best to compile node targeting the
Intel architecture so that Rosetta 2 can translate the
processor instructions to ARM-based Apple Silicon instructions.
Here's what you will need to do:
-
Install Rosetta, if you haven't already done so
$ softwareupdate --install-rosettaYou might wonder, "how will my Apple Silicon Mac know to use Rosetta for a version of node compiled for an Intel chip?". If an executable contains only Intel instructions, macOS will automatically use Rosetta to translate the instructions.
-
Open a shell that's running using Rosetta
$ arch -x86_64 zshNote: This same thing can also be accomplished by finding the Terminal or iTerm App in Finder, right clicking, selecting "Get Info", and then checking the box labeled "Open using Rosetta".
Note: This terminal session is now running in
. Ifzsh
is not the shell you typically use,zsh
may not benvm
'd automatically like it probably is for your usual shell through your dotfiles. If that's the case, make sure to sourcesource
.nvm$ source "${NVM_DIR}/nvm.sh" -
Install whatever older version of node you are interested in. Let's use 12.22.1 as an example. This will fetch the node source code and compile it, which will take several minutes.
$ nvm install v12.22.1 --shared-zlibNote: You're probably curious why
is included. There's a bug in recent versions of Apple's system--shared-zlib
compiler. If one of these broken versions is installed on your system, the above step will likely still succeed even if you didn't include theclang
flag. However, later, when you attempt to--shared-zlib
something using your old version of node.js, you will seenpm install
errors. If you want to avoid the possible hassle of dealing with this, include that flag. For more details, see this issue and this commentincorrect data check -
Exit back to your native shell.
$ exit$ archarm64Note: If you selected the box labeled "Open using Rosetta" rather than running the CLI command in the second step, you will see
here. Unless you have another reason to have that box selected, you can deselect it now.i386 -
Check to make sure the architecture is correct.
is the abbreviation forx64
, which is what you want to see.x86_64$ node -p process.archx64
Now you should be able to use node as usual.
WSL Troubleshooting
If you've encountered this error on WSL-2:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:09 --:--:-- 0curl: (6) Could not resolve host: raw.githubusercontent.com
It may be due to your antivirus, VPN, or other reasons.
Where you can
while you can't
This could simply be solved by running this in your root directory:
sudo rm /etc/resolv.confsudo bash -c 'echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf'sudo bash -c 'echo "[network]" > /etc/wsl.conf'sudo bash -c 'echo "generateResolvConf = false" >> /etc/wsl.conf'sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf
This deletes your
file that is automatically generated when you run WSL, creates a new file and puts
, then creates a
file and adds
and
to prevent auto-generation of that file.
You can check the contents of the file by running:
cat /etc/resolv.conf
Maintainers
Currently, the sole maintainer is @ljharb - more maintainers are quite welcome, and we hope to add folks to the team over time. Governance will be re-evaluated as the project evolves.
Project Support
Only the latest version (v0.40.1 at this time) is supported.
Enterprise Support
If you are unable to update to the latest version of
, our partners provide commercial security fixes for all unsupported versions:
License
See LICENSE.md.
Copyright notice
Copyright OpenJS Foundation and
contributors. All rights reserved. The OpenJS Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of the OpenJS Foundation, please see our Trademark Policy and Trademark List. Node.js is a trademark of Joyent, Inc. and is used with its permission. Trademarks and logos not indicated on the list of OpenJS Foundation trademarks are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.
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