installing_node.md

Introduction

Node is a JavaScript intreperter that doesn't run in the browser, there are many tools that require this to be installed. Testing frameworks and bundlers are two of many.

We're gonig to install it using nvm (Node Version Manager), because it makes it easy to change node versions and upgrade node. There is another tool called npm (Node Package Manager) that you will use later to install the various libraries and tools used in javascript environment. It can be easy to confuse these two so read carefully!

Node is also very easy to install using nvm, so this should go quickly :)

Step 0: Prerequisites

We need to make sure we have everything we need to install and run nvm, node, and npm. Even if you have already installed the prerequisites, it won't hurt to install them again.

Step 0.1: Installing Curl

Curl is used to install nvm, let's install it:

First we update the system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

When this is complete, run:

sudo apt install curl

Now you're ready to download and install nvm

Step 1: Downloading and Installing nvm

Step 1.1: Download and Install

Simply run this command:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash

This will install nvm

Step 1.2: Initializing nvm

In the terminal there should be some directions on how to initialize nvm, if not, (or you don't feel like copying from the terminal), run these commands:

export NVM_DIR="${XDG_CONFIG_HOME/:-$HOME/.}nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

You can verify nvm is installed by running the command:

command -v nvm

if this returns nvm: command not found close the terminal and re-open it. Then try running the above command again. If you get anything else, you're good to continue!

Step 2: Installing Node

Now that we have nvm installed: we can install Node.

Step 2.1: Installation

Run:

nvm install node

This will install the most recent verson of node.

Step 2.2: Setting the node Version

We need to tell nvm which version of Node to use when we run the node command. It's easy, just run the following command:

nvm use node

Now when you run node -v you should see v11.8.0 or something similar.

If you see that, you have successfully installed node!