How to install a specific version of Node on Ubuntu? - node.js

Question

I would like to install NodeJS version 0.8.18 on Ubuntu 12.04. I tried to install the newest version and then reverting to 0.8.18 by using nvm, but when I run my code apparently there is some problem with the packages installed and the two versions (latest and 0.8.18). Since I don't know how to solve that problem, I cleaned the machine from the Node installation and thought about installing directly the version I'm interested in (v0.8.18).

Answer 1

The n module worked for me.
Run this code to clear npm’s cache, install n, and install the latest stable version of Node:
sudo npm cache clean -f
sudo npm install -g n
sudo n stable
See: http://www.hostingadvice.com/how-to/update-node-js-latest-version/
And: https://www.npmjs.com/package/n
To install a specific version of node:
sudo n 6.11.2
To check what version:
node -v
You might need to restart

Answer 2

Chris Lea has 0.8.23 in his ppa repo.
This package let you add a repository to apt-get: (You can also do this manually)
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
Add Chris Lea's repository:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js-legacy
Update apt-get:
sudo apt-get update
Install Node.js:
sudo apt-get install nodejs=0.8.23-1chl1~precise1
I think (feel free to edit) the version number is optional if you only add node.js-legacy. If you add both legacy and ppa/chris-lea/node.js you most likely need to add the version.

Answer 3

NVM (Node Version manager)
https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm
Advantages:
allows you to use multiple versions of Node and without sudo
is analogous to Ruby RVM and Python Virtualenv, widely considered best practice in Ruby and Python communities
downloads a pre-compiled binary where possible, and if not it downloads the source and compiles one for you
Tested in Ubuntu 17.10:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | sh
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
nvm install 0.9.0
nvm install 0.9.9
nvm use 0.9.0
node --version
#v0.9.0
nvm use 0.9.9
node --version
#v0.9.9
For the particular case of the most recent long term support version (recommended if you can choose):
nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts
npm --version
npm install --global vaca
vaca
Since the sourcing has to be done for every new shell, the install script hacks adds some auto sourcing to the end of your .barshrc. That works, but I prefer to remove the auto-added one and add my own:
f="$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"
if [ -r "$f" ]; then
. "$f" &>'/dev/null'
nvm use --lts &>'/dev/null'
fi
With this setup, you get for example:
which node
gives:
/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/node
and:
which vaca
gives:
/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/vaca
and if we want to use the globally installed module:
npm link vaca
node -e 'console.log(require.resolve("vaca"))'
gives:
/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/lib/node_modules/vaca/index.js
as mentioned at:
NodeJS require a global module/package
How do I import global modules in Node? I get "Error: Cannot find module <module>"?
so we see that everything is completely contained inside the specific node version.
For projects however, you are better off just using packages installed locally under node_modules and npx for executable to be able to have independent versions across projects, global usage is mostly for the Node executable itself and global CLI utilities not specific to any project.
Setting the NPM version
Simply:
npm install npm#6.14.13 -g
The executable is placed inside the current NVM version, so everything remains nice and isolated, e.g.:
which npm
gives something like:
/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v14.17.0/bin/npm
How can I change the version of npm using nvm?

Answer 4

It is possible to install specific version of nodejs from nodejs official distribution with using dpkg.
Check the version of you ubuntu distribution, cat /etc/lsb-release.
Check architecture of your os, uname -m.
Download preferred version of debian package from nodejs official site.
For 4.x, https://deb.nodesource.com/node_4.x/pool/main/n/nodejs/
For 5.x, https://deb.nodesource.com/node_5.x/pool/main/n/nodejs/
For 0.12.x, https://deb.nodesource.com/node_0.12/pool/main/n/nodejs/
Be careful to check nodejs-dbg or nodejs in filename.
For example, currently recent 4.x version is 4.2.4, but you can install previous 4.2.3 version.
curl -s -O https://deb.nodesource.com/node_4.x/pool/main/n/nodejs/nodejs_4.2.3-1nodesource1~trusty1_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install rlwrap
sudo dpkg -i nodejs_4.2.3-1nodesource1~trusty1_amd64.deb

Answer 5

Try this way. This worked me.
wget nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.36/node-v0.10.36-linux-x64.tar.gz(download file)
Go to the directory where the Node.js binary was downloaded to, and then run command i.e, sudo tar -C /usr/local --strip-components 1 -xzf node-v0.10.36-linux-x64.tar.gz to install the Node.js binary package in “/usr/local/”.
You can check:-
$ node -v
v0.10.36
$ npm -v
1.4.28

Answer 6

In ubuntu specific version of node can be installed with help of nvm
install nvm
sudo apt install curl
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
To install a particular version of node, use the command nvm install and add the number of the version.
nvm install 10.15.2
node -v

Answer 7

Say you want to install Node 10,
Firstly, download and execute the Node.js 10.x installer:
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
This will add a source file for the official Node.js 10.x repo, grabs the signing key
Once the installer is done doing it’s thing, you will need to install (or upgrade) Node.js:
sudo apt install nodejs

Answer 8

version 0.10 is also avaible with this ppa
apt-add-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js
install nodejs with:
apt-get install nodejs=0.10.25-1chl1~precise1
Thanks to my friend Julian Xhokaxhiu

Answer 9

I imagine many directed here are looking for this to add to a Dockerfile
RUN set -x \
&& curl -sL 'https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x' | bash - \
&& apt-get -y install nodejs \
&& ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/local/bin/node

Answer 10

FYI, according to this page in the wiki of the nodejs github repo, Chris Lea's PPA (mentioned in several other answers) has been superseded by the NodeSource distributions as the main way of installing nodejs from source in Ubuntu:
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
This is supported for the three latest (at the time of writing this) LTS versions of Ubuntu: 10.04 (lucid), 12.04 LTS (precise) and 14.04 (trusty).
I'm not sure this will help in installing an old version of nodejs, but I'm putting this here in case it helps others who needed to install a specific (newer) version of nodejs that isn't included in their distro's repositories.

Answer 11

yes, its a duplicate answer but I insist using n module to install a specific version(following commands installs node version 6.9.5).
npm install -g n
n 6.9.5

Answer 12

NOTE: you can use NVM software to do this in a more nodejs fashionway.
However i got issues in one machine that didn't let me use NVM. So i
have to look for an alternative ;-)
You can manually download and install.
go to nodejs > download > other releases
http://nodejs.org/dist/
choose the version you are looking for
http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.8.18/
choose distro files corresponding your environmment and download (take care of 32bits/64bits version).
Example: http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.8.18/node-v0.8.18-linux-x64.tar.gz
Extract files and follow instructions on README.md :
To build:
Prerequisites (Unix only):
* Python 2.6 or 2.7
* GNU Make 3.81 or newer
* libexecinfo (FreeBSD and OpenBSD only)
Unix/Macintosh:
./configure
make
make install
If your python binary is in a non-standard location or has a
non-standard name, run the following instead:
export PYTHON=/path/to/python
$PYTHON ./configure
make
make install
Windows:
vcbuild.bat
To run the tests:
Unix/Macintosh:
make test
Windows:
vcbuild.bat test
To build the documentation:
make doc
To read the documentation:
man doc/node.1
Maybe you want to (must to) move the folder to a more apropiate place like /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.8.18/ then create a Symbolic Lynk on /usr/bin to get acces to your install from anywhere.
sudo mv /extracted/folder/node-v0.8.18 /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.8.18
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.8.18/bin/node /usr/bin/node
And if you want different release in the same machine you can use debian alternatives. Proceed in the same way posted before to download a second release. For example the latest release.
http://nodejs.org/dist/latest/ -> http://nodejs.org/dist/latest/node-v0.10.28-linux-x64.tar.gz
Move to your favorite destination, the same of the rest of release you want to install.
sudo mv /extracted/folder/node-v0.10.28 /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.10.28
Follow instructions of the README.md file. Then update the alternatives, for each release you have dowload install the alternative with.
sudo update-alternatives --install genname symlink altern priority [--slave genname symlink altern]
Add a group of alternatives to the system. genname is the
generic name for the master link, symlink is the name of its
symlink in the alternatives directory, and altern is the
alternative being introduced for the master link. The arguments
after --slave are the generic name, symlink name in the
alternatives directory and alternative for a slave link. Zero
or more --slave options, each followed by three arguments, may
be specified.
If the master symlink specified exists already in the
alternatives system’s records, the information supplied will be
added as a new set of alternatives for the group. Otherwise, a
new group, set to automatic mode, will be added with this
information. If the group is in automatic mode, and the newly
added alternatives’ priority is higher than any other installed
alternatives for this group, the symlinks will be updated to
point to the newly added alternatives.
for example:
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/node node /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.10.28 0 --slave /usr/share/man/man1/node.1.gz node.1.gz /usr/lib/nodejs/node-v0.10.28/share/man/man1/node.1
Then you can use update-alternatives --config node to choose between any number of releases instaled in your machine.

Answer 13

To install a specific version of nodejs in Ubuntu you can use below commands, just specify and replace the version number, for example, node_12.x will fetch the latest of 12.
curl https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-add-repository "deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_7.x $(lsb_release -sc) main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs

Answer 14

FYI the available version for raring in Chris Lea's repo is currently 0.8.25
sudo apt-get install nodejs=0.8.25-2chl1~raring1

Answer 15

The Node.js project recently pushed out a new stable version with the 0.10.0 release
Use the following command on Ubuntu 13x
sudo apt-get install nodejs=0.10.18-1chl1~raring1

Answer 16

Install nvm using the following commands in the same order.nvm stands for node version manager.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall libssl-dev
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.32.1/install.sh | bash
In case the above command does not work add -k after -o- .It should be as below:
curl -o- -k https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.32.1/install.sh | bash
Then nvm ls-remote to see the available versions.
In case you get N/A in return,run the following.
export NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR=http://nodejs.org/dist
alternatively you can run the following commands too
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
Then nvm install #.#.# replacing # by version(say nvm 8.9.4)
finally nvm use #.#.#

Answer 17

Here is a list of available builds for debian: https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/tree/master/deb
For this example, lets assume you want version 14 (LTS at the time of writing)
We can download this script from github, execute it and install the version of node we want. For security reasons it's a good idea to read the script prior to executing it.
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nodesource/distributions/master/deb/setup_14.x | bash
apt-get install -y nodejs # may or may not require sudo based on your setup
I like this approach because it doesn't require extraneous dependencies like nvm to target specific versions
If you are building for a different distro or architecture you can find more builds here https://nodejs.org/dist/