Nvm uses system node instead of default

[andre487]

OSX 10.11.6, zsh 5.2

I have this nvm settings:

➜  ~ nvm ls
         v4.4.7
->       system
default -> v4.4.7
node -> stable (-> v4.4.7) (default)
stable -> 4.4 (-> v4.4.7) (default)
iojs -> N/A (default)
lts/* -> lts/argon (-> v4.4.7)
lts/argon -> v4.4.7

This listing is from new terminal's tab. And by default nvm uses not default version but the system.

[ljharb]

Do you have a ~/.nvmrc file? Can you locate your profile file where nvm.sh is sourced, and see if it's using --no-use? What does nvm debug print out?

[andre487]

No, I don't have ~/.nvmrc.

nvm.sh call in my .zshrc looks this way:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
if [[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ]]; then
    source "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
fi

There is the nvm debug result:

➜  ~ nvm debug
nvm --version: v0.31.3
$SHELL: /bin/zsh
$HOME: /Users/andre487
$NVM_DIR: '$HOME/.nvm'
$PREFIX: ''
$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX: ''
nvm current: system
which node: /usr/local/bin/node
which iojs: iojs not found
which npm: /usr/local/bin/npm
npm config get prefix: /usr/local
npm root -g: /usr/local/lib/node_modules

[ljharb]

@andre487 ok so when you run:

nvm use node
nvm current
nvm ls
nvm use system
nvm current
nvm deactivate
node --version

what's the output you get?

[ljharb]

@andre487 also, do you have anything - anything at all - modifying $PATH in any of your profile files, specifically after the line that sources nvm?

[andre487]

@ljharb Yes, that's it. I had a source of extra exports after nvm and when I swaped them, version of Node became correct.

Thank you!

[ambroselittle]

In my case, "system" node was installed inadvertently by installing yarn via MacPorts. It seems that port install isn't smart enough to look for nvm node, so it installed a copy in opt/local/.

And in my .zshrc, it was prepending the path to there before calling nvm.sh. If I removed that prepending, it worked, but of course I want MacPorts to work so that's not an option.

Interestingly, nvm uninstall system didn't work. I had to manually by:

sudo rm -f /opt/local/bin/node
sudo rm -rf /opt/loca/include/node

Then restart CLI, of course. No more warnings, and it doesn't see a "system" version installed.

[ljharb]

nvm can’t uninstall something it didn’t install; you’d have to use macports to do that, or do it manually as you indicated.

[ambroselittle]

Sure. I came across something that suggested using nvm uninstall system. I didn't even know it could install system, so I was wondering if it had smarts around finding/removing.

Anyhow, also noting that sudo port uninstall node didn't work, either. Presumably because it was installed as a dependency of yarn.. And port uninstall yarn didn't remove it. So it seemed manual was the only option in my case.

[mokolodi1]

For those who installed node with brew: brew uninstall node

[eng618]

Yes, even though I installed yarn with brew via brew install yarn --without-node it still installed node for some reason... So had to run brew uninstall node --ignore-dependencies to uninstall that node version and all is well again.

[ljharb]

That’s because homebrew recently broke yarn users by removing “without node” as an option.

[jerrygreen]

Looks like it's still a problem

[ljharb]

@jerrygreen please file a new issue.

[monotv]

@andre487 also, do you have anything - anything at all - modifying $PATH in any of your profile files, specifically after the line that sources nvm?

This fixed it for me.

[jmnyarega]

If none of the above solutions works for you, here are the steps I followed:

• remove system node sudo rm /usr/local/bin/node, this should be your option if commands like brew uninstall is not working.
• set your default version in .nvmrc echo "8.11.3" > .nvmrc
• follow these steps to configure your bash configure your bash
• restart your cli

NOTE: It is advised to uninstall node before making use of nvm.

[isholaomotayo]

@andre487 also, do you have anything - anything at all - modifying $PATH in any of your profile files, specifically after the line that sources nvm?

This fixed it for me.

Worked for me too

best to move this

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion

down to the bottom of ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile

[xmihal03]

manual removing by rm /usr/local/bin/node worked for me, nvm system disappeared after that 🎉

[scottclayton]

@xmihal03
Oh wow… that's something I've been grappling with for an embarrassing number of years on this particular machine. Thanks a tonne!

[pierpeople]

anything - anything at all - modifying $PATH in any of your profile files, specifically after the line that sources nvm?

Thanks. In my case, I had nvs installed at some stage. Remove those lines fixed the issue.

[gvko]

@andre487 also, do you have anything - anything at all - modifying $PATH in any of your profile files, specifically after the line that sources nvm?

That fixed it for me. I had a bunch of export PATH="..." statements in my ~/.zshrc profile file after the statement that loads nvm. I just put the statements that source nvm after any other export PATH=... statement and it fixed it!

[matthew-kaye]

For me it was asdf that was the problem, so you can just unlink from there, or depending on how desperate you are, uninstall asdf. Run which node to see where your version is coming from

[hunterdeng500]

rm /usr/local/bin/node worked for me, too
system disappered when I type innvm current

[rapritchard]

@andre487 also, do you have anything - anything at all - modifying $PATH in any of your profile files, specifically after the line that sources nvm?

This worked for me, I had $PATH modified in ~/.zshrc whilst using ~/.zprofile for nvm.

[michaelKaefer]

For Linux users: if you installed nodejs with apt delete it with:

sudo apt purge nodejs
sudo apt autoremove nodejs

Open a new terminal and nvm will work as expected.

[nairu777]

For Linux users: if you installed nodejs with apt delete it with:

sudo apt purge nodejs
sudo apt autoremove nodejs

Open a new terminal and nvm will work as expected.

I had the same problem on mac and used the brew equivalent:

brew uninstall node
nvm use <versionNr>

After removing "system" is not listed when using "nvm list". For me the problem started because I used "brew update && brew upgrade" for all my packages and this conflicted for NVM

[dsteinel]

First you need to check which node is active with which node (for me it was /usr/local/opt/node@16/bin/node) and the path which you see as an output is the path which you can remove with sudo rm /usr/local/opt/node@16/bin/node

[MrUltimate]

First you need to check which node is active with which node (for me it was /usr/local/opt/node@16/bin/node) and the path which you see as an output is the path which you can remove with sudo rm /usr/local/opt/node@16/bin/node

This seems to work for me temporarily. As soon as I restart my CLI, nvm reverts to using system. Any ideas what's happening? When I run which node the path returned is /Users/MrUltimate/.nodenv/shims/node

If I rm -rf that path nvm current switches to none and then I can set my preferred version. But this resets every time I restart my CLI. Anyone have any ideas?

[ljharb]

@MrUltimate i assume nodenv is something you have installed that’s interfering. You could try removing it?

[MrUltimate]

@MrUltimate i assume nodenv is something you have installed that’s interfering. You could try removing it?

Yes, thanks. I did end up removing it and then setting both my default and stable alias so that nvm would default to my preferred version. Without that it would always default to none.

[ljharb]

stable is a built-in one, you should just need nvm alias default node, but if your nvm is up to date, the first node install should be setting that alias.