How to install a specific version of Node on Ubuntu?

Question

I would like to install NodeJS version 0.8.18 on Ubuntu 12.04. I tried to install the newest version and then reverting to 0.8.18 by using nvm, but when I run m

Answer 1

Try this way. This worked me.

1. wget nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.36/node-v0.10.36-linux-x64.tar.gz(download file)

2. Go to the directory where the Node.js binary was downloaded to, and then run command i.e, sudo tar -C /usr/local --strip-components 1 -xzf node-v0.10.36-linux-x64.tar.gz to install the Node.js binary package in “/usr/local/”.

3. You can check:-

   $ node -v
    v0.10.36 
   $ npm -v
    1.4.28
   

Answer 2

To install a specific version of nodejs in Ubuntu you can use below commands, just specify and replace the version number, for example, node_12.x will fetch the latest of 12.

curl https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-add-repository "deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_7.x $(lsb_release -sc) main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs

Answer 3

Here is a list of available builds for debian: https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/tree/master/deb

For this example, lets assume you want version 14 (LTS at the time of writing)

We can download this script from github, execute it and install the version of node we want. For security reasons it's a good idea to read the script prior to executing it.

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nodesource/distributions/master/deb/setup_14.x | bash
apt-get install -y nodejs # may or may not require sudo based on your setup 

I like this approach because it doesn't require extraneous dependencies like nvm to target specific versions

If you are building for a different distro or architecture you can find more builds here https://nodejs.org/dist/

Answer 4

FYI, according to this page in the wiki of the nodejs github repo, Chris Lea's PPA (mentioned in several other answers) has been superseded by the NodeSource distributions as the main way of installing nodejs from source in Ubuntu:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

This is supported for the three latest (at the time of writing this) LTS versions of Ubuntu: 10.04 (lucid), 12.04 LTS (precise) and 14.04 (trusty).

I'm not sure this will help in installing an old version of nodejs, but I'm putting this here in case it helps others who needed to install a specific (newer) version of nodejs that isn't included in their distro's repositories.

Answer 5

NOTE: you can use NVM software to do this in a more nodejs fashionway. However i got issues in one machine that didn't let me use NVM. So i have to look for an alternative ;-)

You can manually download and install.

go to nodejs > download > other releases http://nodejs.org/dist/

choose the version you are looking for http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.8.18/

choose distro files corresponding your environmment and download (take care of 32bits/64bits version). Example: http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.8.18/node-v0.8.18-linux-x64.tar.gz

Extract files and follow instructions on README.md :

To build:

Prerequisites (Unix only):

* Python 2.6 or 2.7
* GNU Make 3.81 or newer
* libexecinfo (FreeBSD and OpenBSD only)

Unix/Macintosh:

./configure
make
make install

If your python binary is in a non-standard location or has a non-standard name, run the following instead:

export PYTHON=/path/to/python
$PYTHON ./configure
make
make install

Windows:

vcbuild.bat

To run the tests:

Unix/Macintosh:

make test

Windows:

vcbuild.bat test

To build the documentation:

make doc

To read the documentation:

man doc/node.1

Maybe you want to (must to) move the folder to a more apropiate place like /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.8.18/ then create a Symbolic Lynk on /usr/bin to get acces to your install from anywhere.

sudo mv /extracted/folder/node-v0.8.18 /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.8.18
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.8.18/bin/node /usr/bin/node

And if you want different release in the same machine you can use debian alternatives. Proceed in the same way posted before to download a second release. For example the latest release.

http://nodejs.org/dist/latest/ -> http://nodejs.org/dist/latest/node-v0.10.28-linux-x64.tar.gz

Move to your favorite destination, the same of the rest of release you want to install.

sudo mv /extracted/folder/node-v0.10.28 /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.10.28

Follow instructions of the README.md file. Then update the alternatives, for each release you have dowload install the alternative with.

sudo update-alternatives    --install genname symlink  altern  priority  [--slave  genname  symlink altern]
          Add a group of alternatives  to  the  system.   genname  is  the
          generic  name  for  the  master link, symlink is the name of its
          symlink  in  the  alternatives  directory,  and  altern  is  the
          alternative being introduced for the master link.  The arguments
          after  --slave  are  the  generic  name,  symlink  name  in  the
          alternatives  directory  and alternative for a slave link.  Zero
          or more --slave options, each followed by three  arguments,  may
          be specified.

          If   the   master   symlink  specified  exists  already  in  the
          alternatives system’s records, the information supplied will  be
          added  as a new set of alternatives for the group.  Otherwise, a
          new group, set to  automatic  mode,  will  be  added  with  this
          information.   If  the group is in automatic mode, and the newly
          added alternatives’ priority is higher than any other  installed
          alternatives  for  this  group,  the symlinks will be updated to
          point to the newly added alternatives.

for example:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/node node /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.10.28 0 --slave /usr/share/man/man1/node.1.gz node.1.gz /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.10.28/share/man/man1/node.1

Then you can use update-alternatives --config node to choose between any number of releases instaled in your machine.

Answer 6

NVM (Node Version manager)

https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

Advantages:

• allows you to use multiple versions of Node and without sudo

• is analogous to Ruby RVM and Python Virtualenv, widely considered best practice in Ruby and Python communities

• downloads a pre-compiled binary where possible, and if not it downloads the source and compiles one for you

Tested in Ubuntu 17.10:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | sh
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
nvm install 0.9.0
nvm install 0.9.9
nvm use 0.9.0
node --version
#v0.9.0
nvm use 0.9.9
node --version
#v0.9.9

For the particular case of the most recent long term support version (recommended if you can choose):

nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts
npm --version
npm install --global vaca
vaca

Since the sourcing has to be done for every new shell, the install script hacks adds some auto sourcing to the end of your .barshrc. That works, but I prefer to remove the auto-added one and add my own:

f="$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"
if [ -r "$f" ]; then
  . "$f" &>'/dev/null'
  nvm use --lts &>'/dev/null'
fi

With this setup, you get for example:

which node

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/node

and:

which vaca

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/vaca

and if we want to use the globally installed module:

npm link vaca
node -e 'console.log(require.resolve("vaca"))'

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/lib/node_modules/vaca/index.js

• NodeJS require a global module/package
• How do I import global modules in Node? I get "Error: Cannot find module <module>"?

so we see that everything is completely contained inside the specific node version.