use nvm, stay sane

keep your node environments separate for different projects. Photo by John Salzarulo on Unsplash

as web developers, we are mostly working on different projects. using npm in almost all of them is a ritual. the problem comes when two projects use different versions of node and we are faced with compatibility issues.

a fullproof solution is to use nvm to use multiple versions of node on your computer.

here is a quick list of steps to set it up and go la-la:

1. install nvm (wow). here is cURL command to do that:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.8/install.sh | bash

2. check for installation

command -v nvm

this should output ‘nvm’ if the installation was successful. if not, close and open a new terminal and try again.

3. install node

nvm install node

this will install latest version of node. you can specify which version to install and install multiple versions. eg.

nvm install 6.10.2

4. in any new folder, you can specify to use whichever version you want

nvm use node

or

nvm use v6.10.2

or to use system default global version

nvm use system

5. to see a list if all the installed versions

nvm ls

6. finally, to uninstall a version if you no longer need it

nvm uninstall 6.10.2

this gives you a quick idea on how to manage your node versions without going insane.