nvm.sh fails to source on initial install

[mheffner]

After following the installation instructions in the README, the nvm.sh script fails to source in bash. It will return with error code 13.

After investigation, it appears the you must install a node version AND alias it to default before the script will source without error. It tries to find the active version by performing an ls on the install directory, and upon failing to find an installed version, returns error code 13.

On initial install, the failure to find an installed node version should be a handled error. In my case, I assumed it was broken when it was returning code 13.

[creationix]

That sounds a bit of a chicken and egg problem. On my bash in a vanilla Ubuntu system, I never have trouble sourcing nvm in a clean environment. Do you have anything custom or aliases setup?

[mheffner]

What is the value of $? after sourcing nvm.sh? With the current master, mine is always '13' before I've installed a particular node version. I can also trigger this by simply removing the default alias:

$ source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh 
$ echo $?
0
$ rm ~/.nvm/alias/default 
$ source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh 
Exit 13
$ echo $?
13

Restoring the alias default removes the failure. My recommendation would be to remove the 'return 13' in the case it can't find an installed node version and only error when someone attempts to pick a node version that doesn't exit.

FWIW, the following bashrc function helps diagnose commands that fail by printing the return value of the previous command if not zero:

# Display exit status of previous command on failure
#
function printexitvalue()
{
        local SAVE_EXIT=$?

        if [ $SAVE_EXIT -ne 0 ]; then
           echo "Exit $SAVE_EXIT";
        fi

        return $SAVE_EXIT
}
export PROMPT_COMMAND=printexitvalue

[creationix]

Sorry, I didn't see your comment. Did you ever resolve this?

[mheffner]

I believe I worked around it by ignoring the error and preceding with installing a node and setting it as default. I'd imagine the original error is still present though, see earlier comment for how to reproduce.

[creationix]

I understand. Nothing is broken, it's just that in your environment, you're able to see the error code that I can't see in a vanilla bash environment. I'll look into fixing it if it bothers more people.

[KrofDrakula]

I think I'm having the same problem; installed a fresh Ubuntu 11.04 system and sourced nvm. Tried nvm install stable: it downloads the source but errors out with the following:

nvm: install v0.4.11 failed!

It does download the source to the current directory, though.

ADDED: I've additionally installed build-essential, openssl and libssl-dev to no avail. Node's ./configure shows all green.

[KrofDrakula]

Okay, installing the latest node from master branch using the following:

./configure
make
sudo make install

And then opening a new shell (while having . ~/.nvm/nvm.sh in my .bashrc) and running nvm install stable from my home directory seems to have done its job.

As a side effect, I've now seen that the nvm install behaves differently; in previous attempts it showed the standard curl messages (progress bars and all), while this time round it showed the familiar hash signs and counted up to 100%. If that helps any, I'm really bad at bash and can't point my finger to any of the parts of the sourced script.

[siygle]

I have the same problem when I upgrade my laptop to ubuntu 11.10. I didn't install any nodejs package at first, then I tried to install nodejs through nvm, but it always display "install failed!" (Both v0.4.x & v0.5.x)

I put some debug code and find out that
https://github.com/creationix/nvm/blob/master/nvm.sh#L106-110
The if else not work correctly, so the tarball would be null then program goes fail.

Then I do the same thing just like KrofDrakula did, fetch the node source code and install. After that, nvm could work fine.
Any advice? Thank.

[jprichardson]

I also have the same problem. On a vanilla Ubuntu 11.10, NVM fails to install v0.4.12. However, it seems to have downloaded the tarball correctly. Any thoughts on the problem?

[jprichardson]

I figured out the problem... for some reason on Ubuntu 11.10, emulation with curl is happening from the nvm.sh script. Remove that portion in the beginning of the nvm.sh file and source the update. Then make sure that the actual curl binary is installed.

Why any dependence upon wget? Why not just a dependence upon curl? Why bother trying to emulate curl with wget?

[creationix]

Desktop Linux doesn't usually have curl installed by default, but it does have wget. I always install curl and I think any serious web developer should have curl, but I'm not sure I should force that opinion on others. Either way, the wget emulation doesn't seem to work so I should probably remove it.

[KrofDrakula]

I'd suggest the script check the availability of curl and get rid of the use of wget altogether. If curl is not available, simply fail with an error message stating that curl needs to be installed as a prerequisite.

EDIT: just tried the suggestion by @jprichardson – installing curl on a vanilla Ubuntu instance (11.04) prior to running nvm install v0.4.12 does the trick, if anyone's still stuck.

[creationix]

Fixed in 8dad534

[KrofDrakula]

Awesome, thanks. Informative errors are way cool. :)

[jprichardson]

Excellent! Thanks for fixing this!