First you'll need to make sure your system has a c++ compiler. For OSX, XCode will work, for Ubuntu, the build-essential and libssl-dev packages work.
Note: nvm does not support Windows (see #284). Two alternatives exist, which are not supported nor developed by us:
To install you could use the install script using cURL:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.17.3/install.sh | bash
or Wget:
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.17.3/install.sh | bash
The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm and adds the source line to your profile (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc or ~/.profile).
You can customize the install source, directory and profile using the NVM_SOURCE, NVM_DIR, and PROFILE 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.
For manual install create a folder somewhere in your filesystem with the nvm.sh file inside it. I put mine in a folder called nvm.
Or if you have git installed, then just clone it, and check out the latest version:
git clone https://github.com/creationix/nvm.git ~/.nvm && cd ~/.nvm && git checkout `git describe --abbrev=0 --tags`
To activate nvm, you need to source it from your shell:
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
I always add this line to my ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.zshrc file to have it automatically sourced upon login.
Often I also put in a line to use a specific version of node.
You can create an .nvmrc file containing version number in the project root directory (or any parent directory).
nvm use, nvm install, nvm exec, and nvm run will all respect an .nvmrc file.
To download, compile, and install the latest v0.10.x release of node, do this:
nvm install 0.10
And then in any new shell just use the installed version:
nvm use 0.10
Or you can just run it:
nvm run 0.10 --version
Or, you can run any arbitrary command in a subshell with the desired version of node:
nvm exec 0.10 node --version
In place of a version pointer like "0.10", you can use the special default aliases "stable" and "unstable":
nvm install stable
nvm install unstable
nvm use stable
nvm run unstable --version
If you want to use the system-installed version of node, you can use the special default alias "system":
nvm use system
nvm run system --version
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
To restore your PATH, you can deactivate it.
nvm deactivate
To set a default Node version to be used in any new shell, use the alias 'default':
nvm alias default stable
To use a mirror of the node binaries, set $NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR:
export NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR=http://nodejs.org/dist
nvm install 0.10
NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR=http://nodejs.org/dist nvm install 0.10
nvm use will not, by default, create a "current" symlink. Set $NVM_SYMLINK_CURRENT to "true" to enable this behavior, which is sometimes useful for IDEs.
nvm is released under the MIT license.
Copyright (C) 2010-2014 Tim Caswell
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
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.
To activate, you need to source bash_completion:
[[ -r $NVM_DIR/bash_completion ]] && . $NVM_DIR/bash_completion
Put the above sourcing line just below the sourcing line for NVM in your profile (.bashrc, .bash_profile).
nvm
$ nvm [tab][tab]
alias copy-packages help list run uninstall version
clear-cache deactivate install ls unalias use
nvm alias
$ nvm alias [tab][tab]
default
$ nvm alias my_alias [tab][tab]
v0.6.21 v0.8.26 v0.10.28
nvm use
$ nvm use [tab][tab]
my_alias default v0.6.21 v0.8.26 v0.10.28
nvm uninstall
$ nvm uninstall [tab][tab]
my_alias default v0.6.21 v0.8.26 v0.10.28
If you try to install a node version and the installation fails, be sure to delete the node downloads from src (~/.nvm/src/) or you might get an error when trying to reinstall them again or you might get an error like the following:
curl: (33) HTTP server doesn't seem to support byte ranges. Cannot resume.
Where's my 'sudo node'? Checkout this link:
on Arch Linux and other systems using python3 by default, before running install you need to
export PYTHON=python2
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 -s option to force install from source:
nvm install -s 0.8.6