nvm

Node Version Manager Table of Contents Intro About Installing and Updating Install & Update Script Additional Notes Installing in Docker Installing in Docker for CICD-Jobs Troubleshooting on Linux Troubleshooting on macOS Ansible Verify Installation Important Notes Git Install Manual Install Manual Upgrade Usage Long-term Support Version Categories Migrating Global Packages While Installing Migrating Global Packages Between Installed Versions Offline Install Default Global Packages From File While Installing io.js System Version of Node Listing Versions Setting Custom Colors Persisting custom colors Suppressing colorized output Restoring PATH Set default node version Use a mirror of node binaries Pass Authorization header to mirror Platforms without official binaries .nvmrc Deeper Shell Integration Calling nvm use automatically in a directory with a .nvmrc file bash zsh fish Running Tests Environment variables Bash Completion Usage Compatibility Issues Installing nvm on Alpine Linux Alpine Linux 3.13+ Alpine Linux 3.5 - 3.12 Uninstalling / Removal Manual Uninstall Docker For Development Environment Problems macOS Troubleshooting WSL Troubleshooting Maintainers Project Support Enterprise Support License Copyright notice Intro nvm allows you to quickly install and use different versions of node via the command line. Example: $ nvm install 24 Now using node v24.14.0 (npm v11.9.0) $ node -v v24.14.0 $ nvm use 22 Now using node v22.22.1 (npm v10.9.4) $ node -v v22.22.1 $ nvm use 20 Now using node v20.20.1 (npm v10.8.2) $ node -v v20.20.1 Simple as that! About nvm is a version manager for node.js, 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. Installing and Updating Install & Update Script 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 -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.8/install.sh | bash wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.8/install.sh | bash 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 (~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile). If you find the install script is updating the wrong profile file, set the $PROFILE env var to the profile file’s path, and then rerun the installation script. export NVM_DIR="$([ -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 Additional Notes If the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is present, it will place the nvm files there. You can add --no-use to the end of the above script to postpone using nvm until you manually use it: export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")" [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" --no-use # This loads nvm, without auto-using the default version You can customize the install source, directory, profile, and version using the NVM_SOURCE, NVM_DIR, PROFILE, and NODE_VERSION variables. Eg: curl ... | NVM_DIR="path/to/nvm". Ensure that the NVM_DIR does not contain a trailing slash. The installer can use git, curl, or wget to download nvm, whichever is available. You can instruct the installer to not edit your shell config (for example if you already get completions via a zsh nvm plugin) by setting PROFILE=/dev/null before running the install.sh script. Here's an example one-line command to do that: PROFILE=/dev/null bash -c 'curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.8/install.sh | bash' Installing in Docker When invoking bash as a non-interactive shell, like in a Docker container, none of the regular profile files are sourced. In order to use nvm, node, and npm like normal, you can instead specify the special BASH_ENV variable, which bash sources when invoked non-interactively. # Use bash for the shell SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-o", "pipefail", "-c"] # Create a script file sourced by both interactive and non-interactive bash shells ENV BASH_ENV="${HOME:-/root}/.bash_env" RUN touch "${BASH_ENV}" RUN echo '. "${BASH_ENV}"' >> ~/.bashrc # Download and install nvm RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.8/install.sh | PROFILE="${BASH_ENV}" bash RUN echo node > .nvmrc RUN nvm install Installing in Docker for CICD-Jobs More robust, works in CI/CD-Jobs. Can be run in interactive and non-interactive containers. See #3531. FROM ubuntu:latest ARG NODE_VERSION=20 # install curl RUN apt update && apt install curl -y # install nvm RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.8/install.sh | bash # set env ENV NVM_DIR="${HOME:-/root}/.nvm" # install node RUN bash -c "source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh && nvm install $NODE_VERSION" # set ENTRYPOINT for reloading nvm-environment ENTRYPOINT ["bash", "-c", "source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh && exec \"$@\"", "--"] # set cmd to bash CMD ["/bin/bash"] This example defaults to installation of nodejs version 20.x.y. Optionally you can easily override the version with docker build args like: docker build -t nvmimage --build-arg NODE_VERSION=19 . After creation of the image you can start container interactively and run commands, for example: docker run --rm -it nvmimage root@0a6b5a237c14:/# nvm -v 0.40.8 root@0a6b5a237c14:/# node -v v19.9.0 root@0a6b5a237c14:/# npm -v 9.6.3 Noninteractive example: user@host:/tmp/test $ docker run --rm -it nvmimage node -v v19.9.0 user@host:/tmp/test $ docker run --rm -it nvmimage npm -v 9.6.3 Troubleshooting on Linux On Linux, after running the install script, if you get nvm: command not found or see no feed