run `nvm use` automatically every time there's a .nvmrc file on the directory

Question

How to configure my shell so that nvm use run automatically every time there\'s a .nvmrc file on the directory and use the latest version or a global config whe

Answer 1

Yet another solution using direnv. Direnv comes with OS X and many distros so no installation is needed.

Add these two lines to your .zshenv or .bash_profile depending on which shell you use:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm" # You probably have this line already
export NODE_VERSIONS="${NVM_DIR}/versions/node"
export NODE_VERSION_PREFIX="v"

Add an .envrc file to the project root with the contents

set -e
use node

Finally cd to your directory. (Don't forget to source .zshenv)

direnv will ask you to allow load config. Type direnv allow and voila!

Note that direnv doesn't support fancy constructs like lts/* in .nvrmc. On the positive side, direnv supports a bunch of runtimes like node, php, go, pyhton, ruby etc. allowing us to use a single tool to solve path issues.

Answer 2

Extending on @Adriano P answer, I'd propose this version that is less general (only works if .nvmrc is set on a git repository root), but works in cases when we navigate to elsewhere in project than its root:

_enter_dir() {
    local git_root
    git_root=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)

    if [[ "$git_root" == "$PREV_PWD" ]]; then
        return
    elif [[ -n "$git_root" && -f "$git_root/.nvmrc" ]]; then
        nvm use
        NVM_DIRTY=1
    elif [[ "$NVM_DIRTY" == 1 ]]; then
        nvm use default
        NVM_DIRTY=0
    fi
    PREV_PWD="$git_root"
}

export PROMPT_COMMAND=_enter_dir
#export PROMPT_COMMAND="$PROMPT_COMMAND;_enter_dir"  # use this if PROMPT_COMMAND already defined

Answer 3

I use this zsh configuration framework called Oh My Zsh. It's a very active repository with regular updates. Try it and I'm sure you will love it. Oh, and it has the automatic .nvmrc feature built-in so it's as simple as installing the package thru npm!

https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh

Answer 4

I just found out about Automatic Version Switching for Node.js https://github.com/wbyoung/avn, you can use that.

You can also follow this thread https://github.com/creationix/nvm/issues/110

Answer 5

For someone still facing the above issue the README for nvm has this section which would be helpful https://github.com/creationix/nvm#deeper-shell-integration

Personally I prefer editing the .bashrc (https://github.com/creationix/nvm#automatically-call-nvm-use) over other solutions.

Answer 6

I tried many solutions for this and nothing worked the way I wanted, so I wrote my own:

ZSH function to auto-switch to correct Node version

As far as I know, this is the only one that meets all the following criteria:

• guarantees you are always on the right version by searching up the directory tree to find the closest .nvmrc (just like nvm use);
• can handle any valid .nvmrc format;
• clearly warns you if no installed version satisfies the .nvmrc,
• assumes you want default if there is no .nvmrc anywhere up the tree;
• is completely silent and fast if you are already on the correct Node version.