Manage multiple NodeJS versions using NVM

What is NVM #

NVM is a version manager for NodeJS. It is a useful tool for managing multiple versions of NodeJS on a single development machine. It works on any POSIX_compliant shell like sh, dash, ksh, zsh, bash.

Installation #

Follow the instructions on the GitHub repo in order to install NVM

Installation Instructions

Verify the installation

command -v nvm

This should output nvm if the installation was successful.

Usage #

Installing the latest version of NodeJS #

Install the latest version of NodeJS and NPM

nvm install node

Once installed you can check the version using the command node -v

Installing a specific version of NodeJS #

Specific version of NodeJS can be installed

nvm install 14.16.0

Again, you can check the version using the command node -v

Checking available versions #

You can check the versions available to install

nvm ls-remote

And check the installed versions using

nvm ls

Switching between versions #

In a new shell, you can switch to a different version of node

nvm use 14.16.0

Note that the version switch applies to the current shell, and does not change the default Node version that is initialized in a new shell.

NVM sets the first version that was installed as the default. In order to set a different version of Node as default, set the alias

nvm alias default 10.24.0

References #

1. NodeJS
2. NVM