@shadowspawn/nvh

Node Version Helper

Easily install Node.js versions. No profile setup required for default install location.

Requires bash (and does not require a working node install).

Forked from tj/n with changes to command syntax, bug fixes, and new features.

• Node Version Helper
  • Installation
  • Installing Node Versions
  • Specifying Node Versions
  • Using Downloaded Node Versions Without Reinstalling
  • Preserving npm
  • Miscellaneous
  • Optional Environment Variables
  • Alternatives to nvh

Installation

If you already have node, the easiest way to install nvh is through npm:

npm install -g @shadowspawn/nvh
nvh help

nvh installs node to /usr/local by default, but you may change this location by defining NVH_PREFIX (see environment variables). The downloads are written to a cache in subdirectory nvh/versions.

One way to bootstrap an install if npm is not yet available:

curl -L https://github.com/JohnRGee/nvh/raw/master/bin/nvh -o nvh
bash nvh install lts
# Now node and npm are available

Installing Node Versions

Execute nvh install <version> to download and install a version of node. If <version> has already been downloaded, nvh will install from its cache.

nvh install 4.9.1
nvh i lts

Execute nvh on its own to view your downloaded versions, and install the selected version.

$ nvh

  node/v4.9.1
ο node/v6.14.3
  node/v8.11.3

Use up/down arrow keys to select a version, return key to install, q to quit

(You can also use j and k to navigate up or down without using arrows.)

Specifying Node Versions

There are a variety of ways of specifying the target node version for nvh commands. Most commands use the latest matching version, and nvh ls-remote lists multiple matching versions.

Numeric version numbers can be complete or incomplete, with an optional leading v.

• 4.9.1
• 8: 8.x.y versions
• v6.1: 6.1.x versions

There are labels for two especially useful versions:

• lts: newest Long Term Support official release
• latest, current: newest official release

There is support for release streams:

• argon, boron, carbon: codenames for LTS release streams

The last form is for specifying other releases available using the name of the remote download folder followed by the complete or incomplete version.

• chakracore-release/latest
• nightly/10
• test/v11.0.0-test20180528
• rc/v10.0.0-rc.1

Using Downloaded Node Versions Without Reinstalling

There are two commands for working directly with your downloaded versions of node, without reinstalling.

You can show the path to the downloaded version:

$ nvh which 6.14.3
/usr/local/nvh/versions/6.14.3/bin/node

Or run a downloaded node version with the nvh run command:

nvh run 8.11.3 --debug some.js

Preserving npm

A node install normally includes npm as well, but you may wish to preserve an updated npm and npx leaving them out of the install:

$ nvh install latest
installed : v10.6.0
$ npm --version
6.1.0
$ nvh install --preserve v8.0.0
installed : v8.0.0
$ npm --version
6.1.0

Miscellaneous

List matching remote versions available for download:

nvh ls-remote lts
nvh ls-remote latest
nvh lsr 6
nvh lsr --all

List downloaded versions in cache:

nvh ls

Remove some downloaded versions:

nvh rm 0.9.4 v0.10.0

Remove all downloaded versions except the installed version, or all:

nvh cache prune
nvh cache clear

Display diagnostics to help resolve problems:

nvh doctor

Optional Environment Variables

The nvh command downloads and installs to /usr/local by default, but you may override this location by defining NVH_PREFIX. To change the location to say $HOME/.nvh, add lines like the following to your shell initialization file:

export NVH_PREFIX=$HOME/.nvh
export PATH=$NVH_PREFIX/bin:$PATH

See Environment Variables for more about these settings:

NVH_NODE_MIRROR
NVH_NODE_DOWNLOAD_MIRROR
NVH_MAX_REMOTE_MATCHES

See Proxy Server for variables and advice for using a proxy server.

https_proxy

Alternatives to nvh

nvh is a fork from tj/n, so the original is an alternative!

nvh does not:

• manage the global npm modules per version of node
• dynamically change the available node as navigate in shell
• run natively on Windows (although there is now the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10)

Three alternatives offering different feature sets are:

• nvs Node Version Switcher
• nvm Node Version Manager
• nave Virtual Environments for Node

Changelog

[6.0.2] (2018-09-23)

Added

• automated test coverage

Fixed

• removed references to numeric release streams (e.g. v7.x) from documentation