Simplify Your Node.js Environment Setup: The Ultimate NVM Version Switching Guide

Node.js is a popular open-source server-side JavaScript runtime environment that allows developers to build scalable, fast, and efficient web applications. With new versions of Node.js being released frequently, it's important for developers to have an easy way to switch between different versions of Node.js. Fortunately, Node Version Manager (NVM) is a popular tool that makes it easy to manage multiple Node.js versions on a single system. In this article, we'll show you how to switch Node.js versions using NVM.

Installing NVM

Before we dive into how to switch Node.js versions using NVM, you'll need to install NVM on your system. The installation process for NVM varies depending on your operating system, but you can find detailed instructions in the NVM documentation for your OS:

• NVM Installation Instructions for Unix and macOS
• NVM Installation Instructions for Windows

Once you've installed NVM, you can use it to manage multiple versions of Node.js.

Switching Node.js Versions with NVM

To switch to a different version of Node.js using NVM, follow these steps:

1. Check the installed Node.js versions by running the command nvm ls.

$ nvm ls 
     v12.18.3 
     v14.5.0 
     v14.10.0 
     *v14.15.3 (Currently using 64-bit executable) 
     v15.0.0

2. Choose the desired Node.js version to use by running the command nvm use <version>. For example, nvm use 14.10.0 will switch to Node.js version 14.10.0.

$ nvm use 14.10.0 
Now using node v14.10.0 (npm v6.14.8)

3. Verify that you have switched to the correct Node.js version by running the command node -v. This will display the current version of Node.js installed on your system.

$ node -v 
v14.10.0

4. You can now use the new version of Node.js as needed.

$ node myapp.js

Installing a New Version of Node.js with NVM

If the desired version of Node.js is not installed, you can install it using NVM by running the command nvm install <version>.

$ nvm install 16.1.0 
Downloading and installing node v16.1.0... 
Downloading https://nodejs.org/dist/v16.1.0/node-v16.1.0-linux-x64.tar.xz...
######################################################################## 100.0%
Computing checksum with sha256sum 
Checksums matched! 
Now using node v16.1.0 (npm v7.11.2)

Conclusion

In this article, we've shown you how to switch Node.js versions using NVM. With NVM, you can easily manage multiple versions of Node.js on your system, and switch between them as needed. We hope this article has been helpful in showing you how to use NVM to manage your Node.js installations.

For more information on using NVM, you can refer to the official documentation at: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

Thank you for reading, and happy coding!