How to install the latest versions of NodeJS and NPM?

Solution 1:

Fresh installation

Use the NodeSource PPA. For details look at the installation instructions. First, choose the Node.js version you need and add the sources for it:

v=8   # set to 4, 5, 6, ... as needed
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_$v.x | sudo -E bash -

Then install the Node.js package.

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

P.S.: curl package must be installed on server for these code lines.

Upgrading

If you have nodejs already installed and want to update, then first remove current instalation and install it again using scripts above.

sudo apt-get purge nodejs npm

Solution 2:

Generally speaking, loading arbitrary data from a URL into a root shell session is not a good idea and I wish people would stop peddling it as a solution for everything - "Please just run this script I'm sending you, and also while we're at it - I have a bridge you'd probably be interested in purchasing".

As an alternative, here's the "Ubuntu Way" of doing the same, where you can see how the system is being updated and know what repositories and what keys are added to your system configuration:

curl https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-add-repository "deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_7.x $(lsb_release -sc) main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs

This is for the latest (at time of writing) Nodejs version 7. Other versions can also be gotten with a simple change to the repo URL - consult nodesource.com documentation for details.

Solution 3:

Node.js v4.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

source: https://github.com/nodesource/distributions#debinstall

Solution 4:

If you want to update inside npm, you can use the n command:

sudo npm cache clean -f
sudo npm install -g n
sudo n stable
sudo npm install npm@latest

This installs the n package which you can use to switch NodeJS-Versions and uses it. Comparison to the alternative NVM and command options are at SO. There is also a blog post.

Solution 5:

NVM (Node Version manager)

https://github.com/creationix/nvm

NVM installs both the latest stable node and npm for you

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | sh
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts
npm --version

Now test it out with a dummy package:

npm install --global vaca
vaca

Since the sourcing has to be done for every new shell, the install script hacks adds some auto sourcing to the end of your .barshrc. That works, but I prefer to remove the auto-added one and add my own:

f="$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"
if [ -r "$f" ]; then
  . "$f" &>'/dev/null'
  nvm use --lts &>'/dev/null'
fi

Advantages:

• allows you to use multiple versions of Node and without sudo

• is analogous to Ruby RVM and Python Virtualenv, widely considered best practice in Ruby and Python communities

• downloads a pre-compiled binary where possible, and if not it downloads the source and compiles one for you

We can easily switch node versions with:

nvm install 0.9.0
nvm install 0.9.9
nvm use 0.9.0
node --version
#v0.9.0
nvm use 0.9.9
node --version
#v0.9.9

You can then use a git tracked .nvmrc file to indicate the node version required for a given project: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24869959/how-do-i-specify-a-local-version-of-node-for-a-project/54503474#54503474

With this setup, you get for example:

which node

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/node

and:

which vaca

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/vaca

and if we want to use the globally installed module:

npm link vaca
node -e 'console.log(require.resolve("vaca"))'

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/lib/node_modules/vaca/index.js

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15636367/nodejs-require-a-global-module-package
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7970793/how-do-i-import-global-modules-in-node-i-get-error-cannot-find-module-module

so we see that everything is completely contained inside the specific node version.

Tested in Ubuntu 17.10.