Node Version Manager

Nvm is a version manager for Node.js. You can use it to install and switch to correct Node.js version.

Installation

To install nvm you can run following:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.2/install.sh | bash

for other installation options and troubleshooting instructions please follow nvm installation docs.

Usage

To use nvm run following command:

nvm use

which automatically use Node.js version specified in .nvmrc file. If given Node.js version is not installed you need to run:

nvm install

with version provided in .nvmrc file. Additionally if you want to install a new version of Node.js and migrate npm packages from a previous version run:

nvm install node --reinstall-packages-from=node

where 'node' is an alias for the latest version. For more details please refer to: nvm usage.

Automatically call nvm use

To automatically call nvm use put the following at the end of $HOME/.bashrc:

cdnvm() {
    command cd "$@" || return $?
    nvm_path=$(nvm_find_up .nvmrc | tr -d '
')

    # If there are no .nvmrc file, use the default nvm version
    if [[ ! $nvm_path = *[^[:space:]]* ]]; then

        declare default_version;
        default_version=$(nvm version default);

        # If there is no default version, set it to `node`
        # This will use the latest version on your machine
        if [[ $default_version == "N/A" ]]; then
            nvm alias default node;
            default_version=$(nvm version default);
        fi

        # If the current version is not the default version, set it to use the default version
        if [[ $(nvm current) != "$default_version" ]]; then
            nvm use default;
        fi

    elif [[ -s $nvm_path/.nvmrc && -r $nvm_path/.nvmrc ]]; then
        declare nvm_version
        nvm_version=$(<"$nvm_path"/.nvmrc)

        declare locally_resolved_nvm_version
        # `nvm ls` will check all locally-available versions
        # If there are multiple matching versions, take the latest one
        # Remove the `->` and `*` characters and spaces
        # `locally_resolved_nvm_version` will be `N/A` if no local versions are found
        locally_resolved_nvm_version=$(nvm ls --no-colors "$nvm_version" | tail -1 | tr -d '->*' | tr -d '[:space:]')

        # If it is not already installed, install it
        # `nvm install` will implicitly use the newly-installed version
        if [[ "$locally_resolved_nvm_version" == "N/A" ]]; then
            nvm install "$nvm_version";
        elif [[ $(nvm current) != "$locally_resolved_nvm_version" ]]; then
            nvm use "$nvm_version";
        fi
    fi
}
alias cd='cdnvm'
cd "$PWD"

or if you're using zsh put this into your $HOME/.zshrc:

# place this after nvm initialization!
autoload -U add-zsh-hook
load-nvmrc() {
  local nvmrc_path="$(nvm_find_nvmrc)"

  if [ -n "$nvmrc_path" ]; then
    local nvmrc_node_version=$(nvm version "$(cat "${nvmrc_path}")")

    if [ "$nvmrc_node_version" = "N/A" ]; then
      nvm install
    elif [ "$nvmrc_node_version" != "$(nvm version)" ]; then
      nvm use
    fi
  elif [ -n "$(PWD=$OLDPWD nvm_find_nvmrc)" ] && [ "$(nvm version)" != "$(nvm version default)" ]; then
    echo "Reverting to nvm default version"
    nvm use default
  fi
}
add-zsh-hook chpwd load-nvmrc
load-nvmrc

For more details visit nvm shell integration.