Using NVM

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nvm is a Node Version Manager that allows you to manage multiple active node.js installations with different versions.

General Usage

With nvm you can install several node versions at the same time and switch between them as you wish. Global packages are installed per node, so you can e.g. have different Ionic CLI versions installed for different node versions.

macOS and Linux

Installation

To install or update nvm, you can use the install script using cURL:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.2/install.sh | bash

or Wget:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.2/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).}

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

You can customize the install source, directory, profile, and version using the NVM_SOURCE, NVM_DIR, PROFILE, and NODE_VERSION variables. Eg: curl ... | NVM_DIR=/usr/local/nvm bash for a global install.

_{NB. The installer can use git, curl, or wget to download nvm, whatever is available.}

Note: On OS X, if you get nvm: command not found after running the install script, one of the following might be the reason:-

• your system may not have a [.bash_profile file] where the command is set up. Simply create one with touch ~/.bash_profile and run the install script again
• 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, open your .bash_profile and add the following line of code:

source ~/.bashrc

• For more information about this issue and possible workarounds, please refer here

Verify installation

To verify that nvm has been installed, do:

command -v nvm

which should output ‘nvm’ if the installation was successful.

Usage

To download, compile, and install the latest release of node, do this:

nvm install node

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 5.0

In place of a version pointer like “0.10” or “5.0” or “4.2.1”, you can use the following special default aliases with nvm install, nvm use, nvm run, nvm exec, nvm which, etc:

• node: this installs the latest version of node
• iojs: this installs the latest version of io.js
• stable: this alias is deprecated, and only truly applies to node v0.12 and earlier. Currently, this is an alias for node.
• unstable: this alias points to node v0.11 - the last “unstable” node release, since post-1.0, all node versions are stable. (in semver, versions communicate breakage, not stability).

Windows

Installation

To install NVM on windows, visit the nvm-windows repo and download the latest installer

Usage

To list the available and installable node versions:

nvm list available

To install the selected node version call:

nvm install <version>

See how it installed and which node versions can be used:

nvm list

To activate a node installation, do:

nvm use <version>

And if a node version is not required any more, execute:

nvm uninstall <version>