npm installs pre alpha version by default

[Raynos]

Today I install node on linux by cloning the repository and checking out tag v0.6.3 then make & make install.

The version of npm that was installed by default for me was the alpha pre version rather then the stable (1.0.106) version.

This caused me issues with one of my npm install commands so I had to uninstall npm and re install the stable version from npm's install.sh script.

The fact I had to reinstall the stable version made the automatic install of npm useless.

Did I miss the obvious step where I told node to install stable npm instead of alpha npm ?

Do we need to make that step more obvious?

Should we not install npm alpha by default?

[edit]

I install node 0.6.3 from the source twice now. The install overwrites my current stable npm install with 1.1.0-alpha-2.

The fact it actually overwrites an existing npm install is far more annoying then installing 1.1.0-alpha-2 by default

[bnoordhuis]

Related to #2200.

[Raynos]

Just to clarify, I quite liking having npm installed by default.

I just think there should be an easy way to set the default npm version that's build (and preferably don't default to the alpha build)

[isaacs]

@Raynos Node's install process installs the version of npm that is bundled with node. The current stable release fails much more painfully and often on Windows. It'll get better fast, I promise :)

But yes, this is a tricky thing to get right. I'm not sure the best way to determine whether or not it should clobber an existing version.

[paulmillr]

What's the point of bundling extremely unstable pre-alpha of npm with stable node? I think it's better not to bundle anything and wait until npm would release 1.1 rather than this.

[Raynos]

Another issue that is important is that this is not just an inconvenience.

I mean sure for the people who understand that the default npm is unstable and it needs to swapped out it's an inconvenience but I'm sure there are plenty of developers who will not realise that npm is unstable and will think that node / npm is buggy or just won't know how to solve the situation.

[Raynos]

Just upgraded to 0.6.4.

It overwrote my stable npm build with 1.1.0-alpha-6.

Admittedly I did build and install 0.6.4 before reading about --without-npm

I generally think the default behaviour of overwriting my stable npm with the latest alpha is still unfriendly.

[isaacs]

Ok. changed the version number. Fixed in node 0.6.8 release, which comes with npm 1.1.0-2.