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
• 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/v0.41.0/install.sh | bash

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.41.0/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.

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗