DEV Community

Cover image for How To Install NVM on macOS with Homebrew
Maxime Kubik
Maxime Kubik

Posted on

How To Install NVM on macOS with Homebrew

#node #todayilearned #tutorial #tooling

The NVM (Node Version Manager) is a shell script used for installing and managing Node.js on a Linux based system. The macOS users can install NVM using the homebrew.

This tutorial help you to install NVM on your macOS system and manage Node.js versions.

Prerequisites

You must have macOS desktop access with administrator privileges.

Login to the macOS desktop system and install Homebrew on your system (if not already installed)



ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Step 1 – Remove existing Node Versions

If your system already have node installed, uninstall it first. My system already have installed node via Homebrew. So uninstalling it first. Skip if not already installed.



brew uninstall --ignore-dependencies node 
brew uninstall --force node
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Step 2 – Install NVM on macOS

Now, you system is ready for the installation. Update the Homebrew package list and install NVM.



brew update 
brew install nvm
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Next, create a directory for NVM in home.



mkdir ~/.nvm
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Now, configure the required environment variables. Edit the following configuration file in your home directory



vim ~/.bash_profile
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

and, add below lines to ~/.bash_profile ( or ~/.zshrc for macOS Catalina or later)



export NVM_DIR=~/.nvm
source $(brew --prefix nvm)/nvm.sh
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Press ESC + :wq to save and close your file.

Next, load the variable to the current shell environment. From the next login, it will automatically loaded.



source ~/.bash_profile
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

That’s it. The NVM has been installed on your macOS system. Go to next step to install Node.js versions with the help of nvm.

Step 3 – Install Node.js with NVM

First of all, see what Node versions are available to install. To see available versions, type:



nvm ls-remote
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Now, you can install any version listed in above output. You can also use aliases names like node for latest version, lts for latest LTS version, etc.



nvm install node     ## Installing Latest version 
nvm install 14       ## Installing Node.js 14.X version
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

After installing you can verify what is installed with:



nvm ls
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Alt Text

If you have installed multiple versions on your system, you can set any version as the default version any time. To set the node 14.X as default version, simply use:



nvm use 14
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Similarly, you can install other versions like Node 12.X or Node 15 and switch between them.

Conclusion

This tutorial explained you to how to install NVM and node.js on macOS system.

Top comments (0)

Read next

udayrana profile image

Using Oxlint for My Node.js Project

Uday Rana -

evanskaufman profile image

Stringifying Errors: A Uniquely Javascript Problem

Evan K -

willvelida profile image

Installing the Dapr extension for Azure Kubernetes Service with Terraform

Will Velida -

andrewbaisden profile image

Deploying a React Watchlist Tracker App to Production Using DeployHQ

Andrew Baisden -