How to install nvm in docker?

Question

When you RUN bash... each time that runs in a separate process, anything set in the environment is not maintained. Here's how I install nvm:

# Replace shell with bash so we can source files
RUN rm /bin/sh && ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

# Set debconf to run non-interactively
RUN echo 'debconf debconf/frontend select Noninteractive' | debconf-set-selections

# Install base dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y -q --no-install-recommends \
        apt-transport-https \
        build-essential \
        ca-certificates \
        curl \
        git \
        libssl-dev \
        wget \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

ENV NVM_DIR /usr/local/nvm # or ~/.nvm , depending
ENV NODE_VERSION 0.10.33

# Install nvm with node and npm
RUN curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.20.0/install.sh | bash \
    && . $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh \
    && nvm install $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm alias default $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm use default

ENV NODE_PATH $NVM_DIR/v$NODE_VERSION/lib/node_modules
ENV PATH      $NVM_DIR/v$NODE_VERSION/bin:$PATH

To help everyone that are looking for a way to install the Node.js with NVM on Ubuntu (last version), I made the dockerfile below. I'm using the last version of Docker, Ubuntu, Node.js and the NVM is working properly (the $PATH was fixed). I'm using this in a production environment.

$ docker info \
Server Version: 1.9.1
Kernel Version: 4.1.13-boot2docker
Operating System: Boot2Docker 1.9.1 (TCL 6.4.1); master : cef800b - Fri Nov 20 19:33:59 UTC 2015

Node.js Version: stable 4.2.4 LTS
Ubuntu Version: 14.04.3

dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:14.04.3

# Replace shell with bash so we can source files
RUN rm /bin/sh && ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

# make sure apt is up to date
RUN apt-get update --fix-missing
RUN apt-get install -y curl
RUN apt-get install -y build-essential libssl-dev

ENV NVM_DIR /usr/local/nvm
ENV NODE_VERSION 4.2.4

# Install nvm with node and npm
RUN curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.30.1/install.sh | bash \
    && source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh \
    && nvm install $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm alias default $NODE_VERSION \
    && nvm use default

ENV NODE_PATH $NVM_DIR/v$NODE_VERSION/lib/node_modules
ENV PATH      $NVM_DIR/versions/node/v$NODE_VERSION/bin:$PATH

RUN mkdir /usr/app
RUN mkdir /usr/app/log

WORKDIR /usr/app

# log dir
VOLUME /usr/app/log

# Bundle app source
COPY . /usr/app
# Install app dependencies
RUN npm install

EXPOSE  3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Update 20/02/2020: This solution works if you're using a debian base image. If you're using ubuntu, see this answer.

Here is the cleanest way to install nvm that I have found:

SHELL ["/bin/bash", "--login", "-c"]

RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash
RUN nvm install 10.15.3

Explanation

• The first line sets the Dockerfile's default shell to a bash login shell. Note: this means that every subsequent RUN, CMD, and ENTRYPOINT will be run under the current user (usually root), and source the ~/.bashrc file if run in the shell form.

• The second line installs nvm with bash. When the script is run with bash, it appends to the ~/.bashrc file.

• The third line installs a particular version of nodejs and uses it. The nvm, npm, and node commands are available because they are run via a bash login shell (see line 1).

Nvm paths have changed since the accepted answer, so if you want to use a more up-to-date nvm version, you need to make a few changes. Also, it is not necessary to remap sh to make it work:

ENV NVM_DIR /usr/local/nvm
RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.1/install.sh | bash
ENV NODE_VERSION v7.9.0
RUN /bin/bash -c "source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh && nvm install $NODE_VERSION && nvm use --delete-prefix $NODE_VERSION"

ENV NODE_PATH $NVM_DIR/versions/node/$NODE_VERSION/lib/node_modules
ENV PATH      $NVM_DIR/versions/node/$NODE_VERSION/bin:$PATH

Not sure if you will need the --delete-prefix option on the nvm use - I did, but that may be something strange about my base image.

Took me an hour or two to figure out the cleanest way to do it. --login doesn't seem to execute .bashrc so you have to supply -i to launch it in interactive mode. This causes Docker to yell at you for a bit so I only launch this way for the installation, then reset to my standard shell.

# Installing Node
SHELL ["/bin/bash", "--login", "-i", "-c"]
RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.2/install.sh | bash
RUN source /root/.bashrc && nvm install 12.14.1
SHELL ["/bin/bash", "--login", "-c"]

Each RUN in a Dockerfile is executed in a different container. So if you source a file in a container, its content will not be available in the next one.

That is why when you install an application and you need to do several steps, you must do it in the same container.

With your example:

ADD files/nvm_install.sh /root/
RUN chmod a+x /root/nvm_install.sh && \
  /root/nvm_install.sh && \
  source /root/.bashrc && \
  cd /root && \
  nvm install 0.10.31