nvm is a version manager for [node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/), designed to be installed per-user, and invoked per-shell. `nvm` works on any POSIX-compliant shell (sh, dash, ksh, zsh, bash), in particular on these platforms: unix, macOS, and windows WSL.
To **install** or **update** nvm, you should run the [install script][2]. To do that, you may either download and run the script manually, or use the following cURL or Wget command:
Running either of the above commands downloads a script and runs it. 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`).
On Linux, after running the install script, if you get `nvm: command not found` or see no feedback from your terminal after you type `command -v nvm`, simply close your current terminal, open a new terminal, and try verifying again.
Since OS X 10.9, `/usr/bin/git` 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](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/1782))
If you get `nvm: command not found` after running the install script, one of the following might be the reason:
- Since macOS 10.15, the default shell is `zsh` and nvm will look for `.zshrc` to update, none is installed by default. Create one with `touch ~/.zshrc` and run the install script again.
- If you use bash, the previous default shell, run `touch ~/.bash_profile` to create the necessary profile file if it does not exist.
- You might need to restart your terminal instance or run `. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh`. Restarting your terminal/opening a new tab/window, or running the source command will load the command and the new configuration.
- If you use bash, it may be that your `.bash_profile` (or `~/.profile`) does not source your `~/.bashrc` properly. You could fix this by adding `source ~/<your_profile_file>` to it or follow the next step below.
- Try adding [the snippet from the install section](#profile_snippet), that finds the correct nvm directory and loads nvm, to your usual profile (`~/.bash_profile`, `~/.zshrc`, `~/.profile`, or `~/.bashrc`).
- For more information about this issue and possible workarounds, please [refer here](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/576)
which should output `nvm` if the installation was successful. Please note that `which nvm` will not work, since `nvm` is a sourced shell function, not an executable binary.
If you're running a system without prepackaged binary available, which means you're going to install nodejs 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 `build-essential` and `libssl-dev` packages work.
**Note:** `nvm` does not support Windows (see [#284](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/284)), but may work in WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) depending on the version of WSL. For Windows, two alternatives exist, which are neither supported nor developed by us:
**Note:** `nvm` does not support [Fish] either (see [#303](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/303)). Alternatives exist, which are neither supported nor developed by us:
- [bass](https://github.com/edc/bass) allows you to use utilities written for Bash in fish shell
- [fast-nvm-fish](https://github.com/brigand/fast-nvm-fish) only works with version numbers (not aliases) but doesn't significantly slow your shell startup
- [plugin-nvm](https://github.com/derekstavis/plugin-nvm) plugin for [Oh My Fish](https://github.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish), which makes nvm and its completions available in fish shell
- [fnm](https://github.com/fisherman/fnm) - [fisherman](https://github.com/fisherman/fisherman)-based version manager for fish
**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](https://www.freshports.org/www/node/files/patch-deps_v8_src_base_platform_platform-posix.cc); 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 `Command Line Tools`. You can check out this blog post on how to just that:
- [How to Install Command Line Tools in OS X Mavericks & Yosemite (Without Xcode)](http://osxdaily.com/2014/02/12/install-command-line-tools-mac-os-x/)
- When using `nvm` you do not need `sudo` to globally install a module with `npm -g`, so instead of doing `sudo npm install -g grunt`, do instead `npm install -g grunt`
- If you have an `~/.npmrc` file, make sure it does not contain any `prefix` settings (which is not compatible with `nvm`)
- You can (but should not?) keep your previous "system" node install, but `nvm` will only be available to your user account (the one used to install nvm). This might cause version mismatches, as other users will be using `/usr/local/lib/node_modules/*` VS your user account using `~/.nvm/versions/node/vX.X.X/lib/node_modules/*`
Homebrew installation is not supported. If you have issues with homebrew-installed `nvm`, please `brew uninstall` it, and install it using the instructions below, before filing an issue.
**Note:** If you're using `zsh` you can easily install `nvm` as a zsh plugin. Install [`zsh-nvm`](https://github.com/lukechilds/zsh-nvm) and run `nvm upgrade` to upgrade.
**Note:** Git versions before v1.7 may face a problem of cloning `nvm` source from GitHub via https protocol, and there is also different behavior of git before v1.6, and git prior to [v1.17.10](https://github.com/git/git/commit/5a7d5b683f869d3e3884a89775241afa515da9e7) 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](https://help.github.com/articles/https-cloning-errors/) article.
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:
-`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).
Node has a [schedule](https://github.com/nodejs/Release#release-schedule) for long-term support (LTS) You can reference LTS versions in aliases and `.nvmrc` files with the notation `lts/*` for the latest LTS, and `lts/argon` for LTS releases from the "argon" line, for example. In addition, the following commands support LTS arguments:
Any time your local copy of `nvm` connects to https://nodejs.org, it will re-create the appropriate local aliases for all available LTS lines. These aliases (stored under `$NVM_DIR/alias/lts`), are managed by `nvm`, and you should not modify, remove, or create these files - expect your changes to be undone, and expect meddling with these files to cause bugs that will likely not be supported.
This will first use "nvm version node" to identify the current version you're migrating packages from. Then it resolves the new version to install from the remote server and installs it. Lastly, it runs "nvm reinstall-packages" to reinstall the npm packages from your prior version of Node to the new one.
You can also install and migrate npm packages from specific versions of Node like this:
Note that reinstalling packages _explicitly does not update the npm version_ — this is to ensure that npm isn't accidentally upgraded to a broken version for the new node version.
To update npm at the same time add the `--latest-npm` flag, like this:
or, you can at any time run the following command to get the latest supported npm version on the current node version:
```sh
nvm install-latest-npm
```
If you've already gotten an error to the effect of "npm does not support Node.js", you'll need to (1) revert to a previous node version (`nvm ls` &`nvm use <your latest _working_ version from the ls>`, (2) delete the newly created node version (`nvm uninstall <your_broken_versionofnodefromthels>`), then (3) rerun your `nvm install` with the `--latest-npm` flag.
If you have a list of default packages you want installed every time you install a new version, we support that too -- just add the package names, one per line, to the file `$NVM_DIR/default-packages`. You can add anything npm would accept as a package argument on the command line.
`nvm ls`, `nvm ls-remote` and `nvm alias` usually produce colorized output. You can disable colors with the `--no-colors` option (or by setting the environment variable `TERM=dumb`):
`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. Note that using `nvm` in multiple shell tabs with this environment variable enabled can cause race conditions.
You can create a `.nvmrc` file containing a node version number (or any other string that `nvm` understands; see `nvm --help` for details) in the project root directory (or any parent directory).
Afterwards, `nvm use`, `nvm install`, `nvm exec`, `nvm run`, and `nvm which` will use the version specified in the `.nvmrc` file if no version is supplied on the command line.
[NB these examples assume a POSIX-compliant shell version of `echo`. If you use a Windows `cmd` development environment, eg the `.nvmrc` 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.]
`nvm use` et. al. will traverse directory structure upwards from the current directory looking for the `.nvmrc` file. In other words, running `nvm use` et. al. in any subdirectory of a directory with an `.nvmrc` will result in that `.nvmrc` being utilized.
The contents of a `.nvmrc` file **must** be the `<version>` (as described by `nvm --help`) followed by a newline. No trailing spaces are allowed, and the trailing newline is required.
You can use [`avn`](https://github.com/wbyoung/avn) to deeply integrate into your shell and automatically invoke `nvm` when changing directories. `avn` is **not** supported by the `nvm` development team. Please [report issues to the `avn` team](https://github.com/wbyoung/avn/issues/new).
If you prefer a lighter-weight solution, the recipes below have been contributed by `nvm` users. They are **not** supported by the `nvm` development team. We are, however, accepting pull requests for more examples.
This alias would search 'up' from your current directory in order to detect a `.nvmrc` file. If it finds it, it will switch to that version; if not, it will use the default version.
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.
In order to provide the best performance (and other optimisations), nvm will download and install pre-compiled binaries for Node (and npm) when you run `nvm install X`. 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](https://www.busybox.net/), a very compact (~5MB) Linux distribution. BusyBox (and thus Alpine Linux) uses a different C/C++ stack to most mainstream/traditional Linux distributions - [musl](https://www.musl-libc.org/). This makes binary programs built for such mainstream/traditional incompatible with Alpine Linux, thus we cannot simply `nvm install X` on Alpine Linux and expect the downloaded binary to run correctly - you'll likely see "...does not exist" errors if you try that.
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:
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](https://github.com/mhart/alpine-node).
To make the development and testing work easier, we have a Dockerfile for development usage, which is based on Ubuntu 14.04 base image, prepared with essential and useful tools for `nvm` development, to build the docker image of the environment, run the docker command at the root of `nvm` repository:
This will package your current nvm repository with our pre-defined development environment into a docker image named `nvm-dev`, once it's built with success, validate your image via `docker images`:
- If you try to install a node version and the installation fails, be sure to run `nvm cache clear` to delete cached node downloads, or you might get an error like the following:
- 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:
- If setting the `default` alias does not establish the node version in new shells (i.e. `nvm current` yields `system`), ensure that the system's node `PATH` is set before the `nvm.sh` source line in your shell profile (see [#658](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/658))
If you set node version to a version other than your system node version `nvm use 6.2.1` and open vim and run `:!node -v` you should see `v6.2.1` if you see your system version `v0.12.7`. You need to run:
```shell
sudo chmod ugo-x /usr/libexec/path_helper
```
More on this issue in [dotphiles/dotzsh](https://github.com/dotphiles/dotzsh#mac-os-x).
**nvm is not compatible with the npm config "prefix" option**
Some solutions for this issue can be found [here](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/1245)
There is one more edge case causing this issue, and that's a **mismatch between the `$HOME` path and the user's home directory's actual name**.
You have to make sure that the user directory name in `$HOME` and the user directory name you'd see from running `ls /Users/`**are capitalized the same way** ([See this issue](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/2261)).
To change the user directory and/or account name follow the instructions [here](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548)
