Managing Multiple Node Versions

I have a few projects on my local machine which require specific versions of Node. I learned today how I can have multiple versions of Node installed and automatically configure a project to use a specific version when I switch to its directory.

Install Node Version Manager (NVM)

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash

After installing, restart the terminal or source your profile script to ensure NVM is loaded:

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

Install multiple versions of Node

nvm install 18.12.1  # Install Node.js version 18.12.1
nvm install 20.12.1  # Install Node.js version 20.12.1

To manually switch between multiple versions of Node, run nvm use:

nvm use 18.12.1  # Switch to Node.js version 18.12.1
nvm use 20.12.1  # Switch to Node.js version 20.12.1

To automate Node version switching for specific projects

First, place a .nvmrc file in the root of the project directory with the required Node version noted inside:

echo "18.12.1" > .nvmrc

Then, to automate the process of switching Node versions based on the .nvmrc file when you cd into that root directory, you can add the following function to your shell's configuration file (.bashrc, .bash_profile, .zshrc, etc.):

autoload -U add-zsh-hook
load-nvmrc() {
  local node_version="$(nvm version)"
  local nvmrc_path="$(nvm_find_nvmrc)"

  if [ -n "$nvmrc_path" ]; then
    local nvmrc_node_version=$(nvm version "$(cat "${nvmrc_path}")")
    if [ "$nvmrc_node_version" = "N/A" ]; then
      nvm install
    elif [ "$nvmrc_node_version" != "$node_version" ]; then
      nvm use
    fi
  elif [ "$node_version" != "$(nvm version default)" ]; then
    echo "Reverting to default node version"
    nvm use default
  fi
}
add-zsh-hook chpwd load-nvmrc
load-nvmrc

This script does the following:

• Checks if there's an .nvmrc file in the current directory.
• If there is, it switches to the Node version specified in that file.
• Upon leaving the directory, it switches back to the default Node version.

Apply Changes to your shell configuration

source ~/.zshrc