Installing multiple versions of Node.js with NVM (Node Version Manager)

How do you manage Node.js version on your machine? You might go with single version without any version control tool. However, if you work on multiple projects where diffrent versions are used, it is necessary to use one of the management tools.
This post recommends nvm, or Node Version Manager. (github page)

Please note this is for Mac OS Big Sur.

Why nvm?

If you are a developer who works on multiple node projects each of which uses different node version, it is quite annoying to switch the version for each.
However, nvm makes it easy with a configuration file .nvmrc.
You just put the file under your project root folder. That's it.
The nvm automatically switches the version to the specified in the .nvmrc.

The .nvmrc is like this.

14.17.5

OK, let's take advantage of it by taking steps below.

Uninsall Node.js

Uninstall nodebrew

If you already installed Node.js or one of the Node version manager tools like nodebrew, please uninstall it.

$ brew uninstall nodebrew

Uninsall Node.js

Here is how to uninstall your Node.js on your machine.

$ lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.node.pkg.bom | while read f; do  sudo rm /usr/local/${f}; done
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*

Install NVM

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.38.0/install.sh | bash

Insatall Node version

Install stable version

$ nvm install --lts
Installing latest LTS version.
v14.17.6 is already installed.
Now using node v14.17.6 (npm v6.14.15)

Install specific version

$ nvm install 14.17.5
Downloading and installing node v14.17.5...
Downloading https://nodejs.org/dist/v14.17.5/node-v14.17.5-darwin-x64.tar.xz...
############################################################################################################################################################################################### 100.0%
Computing checksum with shasum -a 256
Checksums matched!
Now using node v14.17.5 (npm v6.14.14)

Set default version

You can specify the default version to use when no .nvmrc is detected in the directory.

$ nvm alias default v14.17.5
default -> v14.17.5
❯ nvm ls
       v12.14.1
->     v14.17.5
       v14.17.6
         system
default -> v14.17.5
iojs -> N/A (default)
unstable -> N/A (default)
node -> stable (-> v14.17.6) (default)
stable -> 14.17 (-> v14.17.6) (default)
lts/* -> lts/fermium (-> v14.17.6)
lts/argon -> v4.9.1 (-> N/A)
lts/boron -> v6.17.1 (-> N/A)
lts/carbon -> v8.17.0 (-> N/A)
lts/dubnium -> v10.24.1 (-> N/A)
lts/erbium -> v12.22.6 (-> N/A)
lts/fermium -> v14.17.6

.nvmrc

Locating .nvmrc to your project root folter, you can employ the specified Node version for the project.

.nvmrc

14.17.5

In order to make .nvmrc work, you need to add script codes in ~/.zshrc.

# place this after nvm initialization!
autoload -U add-zsh-hook
load-nvmrc() {
  local node_version="$(nvm version)"
  local nvmrc_path="$(nvm_find_nvmrc)"

  if [ -n "$nvmrc_path" ]; then
    local nvmrc_node_version=$(nvm version "$(cat "${nvmrc_path}")")

    if [ "$nvmrc_node_version" = "N/A" ]; then
      nvm install
    elif [ "$nvmrc_node_version" != "$node_version" ]; then
      nvm use
    fi
  elif [ "$node_version" != "$(nvm version default)" ]; then
    echo "Reverting to nvm default version"
    nvm use default
  fi
}
add-zsh-hook chpwd load-nvmrc
load-nvmrc

Result

.nvmrc

12.14.1

When you go to the project root directory, automatically specified node version is applied!

Found '/somewhere/project_root/.nvmrc' with version <12.14.1>
Now using node v12.14.1 (npm v6.13.4)

$ node -v
v12.14.1

Cool.

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