This article describes steps one can take to install and use nvm (node version manager) on Ubuntu Linux.
nvm is a version manager for node.js, designed to be installed per user, and invoked per shell. It can be used to install and manage node.js packages on Linux, macOS, and Windows with WSL.
If you are a developer and want to install and manage multiple versions of node.js on the same system and use a specific version for a specific project, you can use nvm to do that.
nvm also allows you to quickly install and use different versions of nodes via the command line.
Below is how to install nvm on Ubuntu Linux.
How to install nvm on Ubuntu Linux
As mentioned above, nvm allows you to quickly install and use different versions of nodes via the command line.
The steps below show you how to do that on Ubuntu Linux.
Install nvm
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 command:
curl -o- | bash
Wget command:
wget -qO- | bash
Either of the commands above should download the nvm install script that can be used to install. The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm, and attempts to add the source lines from the snippet below to the correct profile file (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.bashrc).
After installing, the script should output the lines below.
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
Once downloaded, you can then activate and reload your shell environment. By default, it’s bash (~/.bashrc).
source ~/.bashrc
To check the version of nvm installed, run the commands below.
nvm --version
Install Node.js with nvm
As mentioned above, nvm can be used to install and manage node.js.
To download and install the current and latest version of node.js, run the commands below.
nvm install node
Once installed, you can check the version of node.js installed by running the commands below.
node --version
To install the latest stable version (long-term support), run the commands below.
nvm install node --lts
To install a specific version (12.17.0), run the commands below.
nvm install 12.17.0
To list all available versions in the repository, run the commands below.
nvm ls-remote
If you have multiple versions of node.js installed, run the commands below to specify the version you want to use.
nvm use 12.17.0
To find the current default node.js installed, run the commands below.
nvm run default --version
Uninstall node.js
To uninstall node.js, run the commands below.
nvm uninstall v12.17.0
That should do it!
Conclusion:
This post showed you how to install and use nvm on Ubuntu Linux. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.
