How do I uninstall nodejs installed from pkg (Mac OS X)? - node.js

Question

I installed NodeJS from pkg file on my Mac. Now I need to uninstall it. Tell me please how to do it.
I tried to remove files from this list:
lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.pkg.bom
But node is still on my computer.

Answer 1

I ran:
lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.pkg.bom \
| while read i; do
sudo rm /usr/local/${i}
done
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node \
/usr/local/lib/node_modules \
/var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*
Coded into gist 2697848
Update
It seems the receipts .bom file name may have changed so you may need to replace org.nodejs.pkg.bom with org.nodejs.node.pkg.bom in the above. The gist has been updated accordingly.

Answer 2

If you installed Node from their website, try this:
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/{bin/{node,npm},lib/node_modules/npm,lib/node,share/man/*/node.*}
This worked for me, but if you have any questions, my GitHub is 'mnafricano'.

Answer 3

Following previous posts, here is the full list I used
sudo npm uninstall npm -g
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node /Users/$USER/.npm
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/node
sudo rm /usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1
sudo rm /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
brew install node

Answer 4

In order to delete the 'native' node.js installation, I have used the method suggested in previous answers sudo npm uninstall npm -g, with additional sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*.
BUT, I had to also delete the following two directories:
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node /Users/$USER/.npm
Only after that I could install node.js with Homebrew.

Answer 5

You can use my forked gist:
https://gist.github.com/ryangatchalian912/75c6894c3f3143fef366d25eb63437ab
Copy and paste these commands into your Terminal:
curl -ksO https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ryangatchalian912/75c6894c3f3143fef366d25eb63437ab/raw/59c25be64e5555415726bfa824ae41ae1b4539b9/uninstall-node.sh
chmod +x ./uninstall-node.sh
sudo ./uninstall-node.sh > tester.txt
rm uninstall-node.sh
It works on Mac OSX Big Sur (11.4+).

Answer 6

This is the full list of commands I used (Many thanks to the posters above):
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node /Users/$USER/.npm
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/node
sudo rm /usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1
brew install node

Answer 7

Use npm to uninstall. Just running sudo npm uninstall npm -g removes all the files.
To get rid of the extraneous stuff like bash pathnames run this (from nicerobot's answer):
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node \
/usr/local/lib/node_modules \
/var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*

Answer 8

I took AhrB's list, while appended three more files. Here is the full list I have used:
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node /Users/$USER/.npm
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/node
sudo rm /usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/npm
sudo rm /usr/local/share/systemtap/tapset/node.stp
sudo rm /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d
# In case you want to reinstall node with HomeBrew:
# brew install node

Answer 9

A little convenience script expanding on previous answers.
#!/bin/bash
# Uninstall node.js
#
# Options:
#
# -d Actually delete files, otherwise the script just _prints_ a command to delete.
# -p Installation prefix. Default /usr/local
# -f BOM file. Default /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.pkg.bom
CMD="echo sudo rm -fr"
BOM_FILE="/var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.pkg.bom"
PREFIX="/usr/local"
while getopts "dp:f:" arg; do
case $arg in
d)
CMD="sudo rm -fr"
;;
p)
PREFIX=$arg
;;
f)
BOM_FILE=$arg
;;
esac
done
lsbom -f -l -s -pf ${BOM_FILE} \
| while read i; do
$CMD ${PREFIX}/${i}
done
$CMD ${PREFIX}/lib/node \
${PREFIX}/lib/node_modules \
${BOM_FILE}
Save it to file and run with:
# bash filename.sh

Answer 10

A decent way to uninstall node installed from pkg
See what is in db/receipts
ls /var/db/receipts/org.node*
Peek into the relevant bom files noting the paths listed
lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.node.pkg.bom
lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.npm.pkg.bom
Do the deletes. Use prefix on remove depending on the paths above.
lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.node.pkg.bom | while read i; do sudo rm /${i}; done
lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.npm.pkg.bom | while read i; do sudo rm /${i}; done
Remove the remaining folders
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules
sudo rm -rf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*
Check it is really gone
which node
which npm

Answer 11

I had to remove the following files too since brew complained in install later after manually removing all files.
/usr/local/share/doc/node/gdbinit
/usr/local/share/systemtap/tapset/node.stp
and then do the following
brew install node
brew link node

Answer 12

The following worked after trial and error, and these directories were not writable so, I removed them and finally was able to get node & npm replaced.
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/systemtap
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/doc/node
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/Cellar/node/9.11.1
brew install node
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/node-9.11.1.high_sierra.bottle.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Users/xxx/Library/Caches/Homebrew/node-9.11.1.high_sierra.bottle.tar.gz
==> Pouring node-9.11.1.high_sierra.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
Bash completion has been installed to:
/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d
==> Summary
🍺 /usr/local/Cellar/node/9.11.1: 5,125 files, 49.7MB
node -v
v9.11.1
npm -v
5.6.0