Manage node versions with nvm

2023-11-17 | Tag node tools

The Node Version Manager(NVM) is an open source version manager for Node.js(Node).

nvm allows you to easily install and mange different versions of Node and switch between them on a per-shell basis.

Install nvm

$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash

It will clone the nvm repository to ~/.nvm and attempts to add the source lines from the snippet below to the correct profile file(~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, .etc)

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

For troubleshooting and updates, see https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm#installing-and-updating

To confirm the version of nvm that is running:

$ nvm -v

Usage

List all installable node versions

$ nvm ls-remote

Install a specific version of node

$ nvm install v20.9.0

Or install the latest LTS version:

$ nvm install --lts

Switch between node versions

Switch version locally

In any new shell just use the node:

$ nvm use v20.9.0

Or just run it:

$ nvm run v20.9.0

Switch version globally

Use the alias command to link the alias default to the specify version:

$ nvm alias default v20.9.0

To review all installed versions of node and the default(global) node version with the ls command:

$ nvm ls
       v16.20.0
->     v18.16.0
         system
default -> v18.16.0

NVM returns a list of all Node versions and aliases, along with an arrow indicating the current version.

Uninstall

Use nvm to unstall node:

$ nvm uninstall v16.20.0

Uninstall nvm

Clear any path variables:

$ nvm deactivate

Uninstall nvm:

$ nvm unload

Clean up .bashrc file by removing the following lines:

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