How do I update Node.js?

Question

I did the following to update my npm:

npm update npm -g 

But I have no idea how to update Node.js. Any suggestions? (I'm using Node.js 0.4.1 and want to update to Node.js 0.6.1.)

Answer 1

I used the following instructions to upgrade from Node.js version 0.10.6 to 0.10.21 on a Mac.

1. Clear NPM's cache:

   sudo npm cache clean -f 

2. Install a little helper called 'n'

   sudo npm install -g n 

3. Install latest stable Node.js version

   sudo n stable 

Alternatively pick a specific version and install like this:

sudo n 0.8.20 

For production environments you might want to pay attention to version numbering and be picky about odd/even numbers.

Credits

• General procedure: D.Walsh
• Stable/unstable versions: P.Teixeira

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Update (June 2017):

This four years old post still receives up-votes so I'm guessing it still works for many people. However, Mr. Walsh himself recommended to update Node.js just using nvm instead.

So here's what you might want to do today:

Find out which version of Node.js you are using:

node --version 

Find out which versions of Node.js you may have installed and which one of those you're currently using:

nvm ls 

List all versions of Node.js available for installation:

nvm ls-remote 

Apparently for Windows the command would be rather like this:

nvm ls available 

Assuming you would pick Node.js v8.1.0 for installation you'd type the following to install that version:

nvm install 8.1.0 

You are then free to choose between installed versions of Node.js. So if you would need to use an older version like v4.2.0 you would set it as the active version like this:

nvm use 4.2 

Answer 2

Use Node Version Manager (NVM)

It's a Bash script that lets you download and manage different versions of node. Full source code is here.

There is a separate project for nvm for Windows: github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows

Below are the full steps to use NVM for multiple version of node on windows

1. download nvm-setup.zip extract and install it.
2. execute command nvm list available from cmd or gitbash or powershell, this will list all available version of node
3. use command nvm install version e.g. nvm install 12.14.0 to install on the machine
4. last once installed use nvm use version to use newer version e.g. nvm use 12.14.0