nvm allows you to quickly install and use different versions of node via the command line.
Example:
$ nvm install 24
Now using node v24.14.0 (npm v11.9.0)
$ node -v
v24.14.0
$ nvm use 22
Now using node v22.22.1 (npm v10.9.4)
$ node -v
v22.22.1
$ nvm use 20
Now using node v20.20.1 (npm v10.8.2)
$ node -v
v20.20.1
Simple as that!
About
nvm is a version manager for node.js, designed to be installed per-user, and invoked per-shell. nvm works on any POSIX-compliant shell (sh, dash, ksh, zsh, bash), in particular on these platforms: unix, macOS, and Windows WSL.
Installing and Updating
Install & Update Script
To install or update nvm, you should run the [install script][2]. To do that, you may either download and run the script manually, or use the following cURL or Wget command:
Running either of the above commands downloads a script and runs it. The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm, and attempts to add the source lines from the snippet below to the correct profile file (~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile). If you find the install script is updating the wrong profile file, set the $PROFILE env var to the profile file’s path, and then rerun the installation script.
If the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is present, it will place the nvm files there.
You can add --no-use to the end of the above script to postpone using nvm until you manually use it:
export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" --no-use # This loads nvm, without auto-using the default version
You can customize the install source, directory, profile, and version using the NVM_SOURCE, NVM_DIR, PROFILE, and NODE_VERSION variables.
Eg: curl ... | NVM_DIR="path/to/nvm". Ensure that the NVM_DIR does not contain a trailing slash.
The installer can use git, curl, or wget to download nvm, whichever is available.
You can instruct the installer to not edit your shell config (for example if you already get completions via a zsh nvm plugin) by setting PROFILE=/dev/null before running the install.sh script. Here's an example one-line command to do that: PROFILE=/dev/null bash -c 'curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.7/install.sh | bash'
Installing in Docker
When invoking bash as a non-interactive shell, like in a Docker container, none of the regular profile files are sourced. In order to use nvm, node, and npm like normal, you can instead specify the special BASH_ENV variable, which bash sources when invoked non-interactively.
# Use bash for the shell
SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-o", "pipefail", "-c"]
# Create a script file sourced by both interactive and non-interactive bash shells
ENV BASH_ENV "${HOME}/.bash_env"
RUN touch "${BASH_ENV}"
RUN echo '. "${BASH_ENV}"' >> ~/.bashrc
# Download and install nvm
RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.7/install.sh | PROFILE="${BASH_ENV}" bash
RUN echo node > .nvmrc
RUN nvm install
user@host:/tmp/test $ docker run --rm -it nvmimage node -v
v19.9.0
user@host:/tmp/test $ docker run --rm -it nvmimage npm -v
9.6.3
Troubleshooting on Linux
On Linux, after running the install script, if you get nvm: command not found or see no feedback from your terminal after you type command -v nvm, simply close your current terminal, open a new terminal, and try verifying again.
Alternatively, you can run the following commands for the different shells on the command line:
bash: source ~/.bashrc
zsh: source ~/.zshrc
ksh: . ~/.profile
These should pick up the nvm command.
Troubleshooting on macOS
Since OS X 10.9, /usr/bin/git has been preset by Xcode command line tools, which means we can't properly detect if Git is installed or not. You need to manually install the Xcode command line tools before running the install script, otherwise, it'll fail. (see #1782)
If you get nvm: command not found after running the install script, one of the following might be the reason:
Since macOS 10.15, the default shell is zsh and nvm will look for .zshrc to update, none is installed by default. Create one with touch ~/.zshrc and run the install script again.
If you use bash, the previous default shell, your system may not have .bash_profile or .bashrc files where the command is set up. Create one of them with touch ~/.bash_profile or touch ~/.bashrc and run the install script again. Then, run . ~/.bash_profile or . ~/.bashrc to pick up the nvm command.
You have previously used bash, but you have zsh installed. You need to manually add these lines to ~/.zshrc and run . ~/.zshrc.
You might need to restart your terminal instance or run . ~/.nvm/nvm.sh. Restarting your terminal/opening a new tab/window, or running the source command will load the command and the new configuration.
If the above didn't help, you might need to restart your terminal instance. Try opening a new tab/window in your terminal and retry.
If the above doesn't fix the problem, you may try the following:
If you use bash, it may be that your .bash_profile (or ~/.profile) does not source your ~/.bashrc properly. You could fix this by adding source ~/<your_profile_file> to it or following the next step below.
Try adding the snippet from the install section, that finds the correct nvm directory and loads nvm, to your usual profile (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.bashrc).
For more information about this issue and possible workarounds, please refer here
Note For Macs with the Apple Silicon chip, node started offering arm64 arch Darwin packages since v16.0.0 and experimental arm64 support when compiling from source since v14.17.0. If you are facing issues installing node using nvm, you may want to update to one of those versions or later.
which should output nvm if the installation was successful. Please note that which nvm will not work, since nvm is a sourced shell function, not an executable binary.
Note: On Linux, after running the install script, if you get nvm: command not found or see no feedback from your terminal after you type command -v nvm, simply close your current terminal, open a new terminal, and try verifying again.
Important Notes
If you're running a system without prepackaged binary available, which means you're going to install node or io.js from its source code, you need to make sure your system has a C++ compiler. For OS X, Xcode will work, for Debian/Ubuntu based GNU/Linux, the build-essential and libssl-dev packages work.
Note:nvm also supports Windows in some cases. It should work through WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) depending on the version of WSL. It should also work with Git Bash (MSYS) or Cygwin. Otherwise, for Windows, a few alternatives exist, which are neither supported nor developed by us:
Note:nvm does not support [Fish] either (see #303). Alternatives exist, which are neither supported nor developed by us:
bass allows you to use utilities written for Bash in fish shell
fast-nvm-fish only works with version numbers (not aliases) but doesn't significantly slow your shell startup
plugin-nvm plugin for Oh My Fish, which makes nvm and its completions available in fish shell
nvm.fish - The Node.js version manager you'll adore, crafted just for Fish
fish-nvm - Wrapper around nvm for fish, delays sourcing nvm until it's actually used.
Note: We still have some problems with FreeBSD, because there is no official pre-built binary for FreeBSD, and building from source may need patches; see the issue ticket:
Note: On OS X, if you do not have Xcode installed and you do not wish to download the ~4.3GB file, you can install the Command Line Tools. You can check out this blog post on how to just that:
Note: On OS X, if you have/had a "system" node installed and want to install modules globally, keep in mind that:
When using nvm you do not need sudo to globally install a module with npm -g, so instead of doing sudo npm install -g grunt, do instead npm install -g grunt
If you have an ~/.npmrc file, make sure it does not contain any prefix settings (which is not compatible with nvm)
You can (but should not?) keep your previous "system" node install, but nvm will only be available to your user account (the one used to install nvm). This might cause version mismatches, as other users will be using /usr/local/lib/node_modules/* VS your user account using ~/.nvm/versions/node/vX.X.X/lib/node_modules/*
Homebrew installation is not supported. If you have issues with homebrew-installed nvm, please brew uninstall it, and install it using the instructions below, before filing an issue.
Note: If you're using zsh you can easily install nvm as a zsh plugin. Install zsh-nvm and run nvm upgrade to upgrade (you can setNVM_AUTO_USE=true to have it automatically detect and use .nvmrc files).
Note: Git versions before v1.7 may face a problem of cloning nvm source from GitHub via https protocol, and there is also different behavior of git before v1.6, and git prior to v1.17.10 can not clone tags, so the minimum required git version is v1.7.10. If you are interested in the problem we mentioned here, please refer to GitHub's HTTPS cloning errors article.
Git Install
If you have git installed (requires git v1.7.10+):
clone this repo in the root of your user profile
cd ~/ from anywhere then git clone https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm.git .nvm
cd ~/.nvm and check out the latest version with git checkout v0.40.7
activate nvm by sourcing it from your shell: . ./nvm.sh
Now add these lines to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.zshrc file to have it automatically sourced upon login:
(you may have to add to more than one of the above files)
Now add these lines to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.zshrc file to have it automatically sourced upon login:
(you may have to add to more than one of the above files)
What is this?nvm (Node Version Manager) is a POSIX-compliant bash script that lets you install, switch between, and manage multiple versions of Node.js on the same machine.
Is this a CLI tool or a background service?It is a shell script (a sourced function, not a standalone binary) that you load into your shell profile and call from the command line.
How do I install nvm?Run the install script via curl or wget (e.g. piping install.sh into bash), which clones nvm into ~/.nvm and adds source lines to your shell profile, or clone the repo manually with git and source nvm.sh yourself.
Does it need git or a C++ compiler to work?The installer uses git, curl, or wget (whichever is available); if you need to build Node from source rather than use a prebuilt binary, you also need a C++ compiler (e.g. Xcode or build-essential/libssl-dev).
Does it work out of the box on Windows or fish shell?Not natively: on Windows it only works through WSL, Git Bash, or Cygwin, and it explicitly does not support the fish shell (third-party wrappers exist for both).
Will it run on any Unix-like shell?Yes, it works in any POSIX-compliant shell (sh, dash, ksh, zsh, bash) on Unix, macOS, and Windows WSL.
How do I actually switch Node versions after installing?Use commands like 'nvm install ' to download a version, 'nvm use ' to switch in the current shell, and 'nvm alias default ' to set what new shells start with.
Can nvm auto-switch versions per project?Yes, nvm supports .nvmrc files in a project directory, and with extra shell integration snippets (for bash, zsh, or fish via plugins) it can automatically call nvm use when you cd into that directory.
Can I run nvm inside Docker for CI/CD?Yes, the README gives a Dockerfile pattern using the BASH_ENV variable so nvm, node, and npm work in non-interactive container shells, with examples for CI/CD jobs.
Is Homebrew-installed nvm supported?No, Homebrew installation is explicitly unsupported; the README asks you to uninstall it via brew and reinstall using the official script before filing issues.
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nvm (Node Version Manager) is a POSIX-compliant bash script that lets you install, switch between, and manage multiple versions of Node.js on the same machine.