How to install nvm in docker?

When you RUN bash... each time that runs in a separate process, anything set in the environment is not maintained. Here's how I install nvm:

# Replace shell with bash so we can source files
RUN rm /bin/sh && ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

# Set debconf to run non-interactively
RUN echo 'debconf debconf/frontend select Noninteractive' | debconf-set-selections

# Install base dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y -q --no-install-recommends \
        apt-transport-https \
        build-essential \
        ca-certificates \
        curl \
        git \
        libssl-dev \
        wget \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

ENV NVM_DIR /usr/local/nvm # or ~/.nvm , depending
ENV NODE_VERSION 0.10.33

# Install nvm with node and npm
RUN curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.20.0/install.sh | bash \
    && . $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh \
    && nvm install $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm alias default $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm use default

ENV NODE_PATH $NVM_DIR/v$NODE_VERSION/lib/node_modules
ENV PATH      $NVM_DIR/v$NODE_VERSION/bin:$PATH

Update 20/02/2020: This solution works if you're using a debian base image. If you're using ubuntu, see this answer.

Here is the cleanest way to install nvm that I have found:

SHELL ["/bin/bash", "--login", "-c"]

RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash
RUN nvm install 10.15.3

Explanation

• The first line sets the Dockerfile's default shell to a bash login shell. Note: this means that every subsequent RUN, CMD, and ENTRYPOINT will be run under the current user (usually root), and source the ~/.bashrc file if run in the shell form.

• The second line installs nvm with bash. When the script is run with bash, it appends to the ~/.bashrc file.

• The third line installs a particular version of nodejs and uses it. The nvm, npm, and node commands are available because they are run via a bash login shell (see line 1).

To help everyone that are looking for a way to install the Node.js with NVM on Ubuntu (last version), I made the dockerfile below. I'm using the last version of Docker, Ubuntu, Node.js and the NVM is working properly (the $PATH was fixed). I'm using this in a production environment.

$ docker info \
Server Version: 1.9.1
Kernel Version: 4.1.13-boot2docker
Operating System: Boot2Docker 1.9.1 (TCL 6.4.1); master : cef800b - Fri Nov 20 19:33:59 UTC 2015

Node.js Version: stable 4.2.4 LTS
Ubuntu Version: 14.04.3

dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:14.04.3

# Replace shell with bash so we can source files
RUN rm /bin/sh && ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

# make sure apt is up to date
RUN apt-get update --fix-missing
RUN apt-get install -y curl
RUN apt-get install -y build-essential libssl-dev

ENV NVM_DIR /usr/local/nvm
ENV NODE_VERSION 4.2.4

# Install nvm with node and npm
RUN curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.30.1/install.sh | bash \
    && source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh \
    && nvm install $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm alias default $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm use default

ENV NODE_PATH $NVM_DIR/v$NODE_VERSION/lib/node_modules
ENV PATH      $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v$NODE_VERSION/bin:$PATH

RUN mkdir /usr/app
RUN mkdir /usr/app/log

WORKDIR /usr/app

# log dir
VOLUME /usr/app/log

# Bundle app source
COPY . /usr/app
# Install app dependencies
RUN npm install

EXPOSE  3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]