Simple flavour of node binary management, no subshells, no profile setup, no convoluted api, just simple.

$ npm install -g n

or

$ make install

Install a few nodes:

$ n 0.8.14
$ n 0.8.17
$ n 0.9.6

Type n to prompt selection of an installed node. Use the up / down arrow to navigate, and press enter or the right arrow to select, or ^C to cancel:

$ n

  0.8.14
ο 0.8.17
  0.9.6

Use or install the latest official release:

$ n latest

Use or install the stable official release:

$ n stable

Switch to the previous version you were using:

$ n prev

Remove some versions:

$ n rm 0.9.4 v0.10.0

Instead of using rm we can simply use -:

$ n - 0.9.4

When running multiple versions of node, we can target them directly by asking n for the binary path:

$ n bin 0.9.4
/usr/local/n/versions/0.9.4/bin/node

Or by using a specific version through n's use sub-command:

$ n use 0.9.4 some.js

with flags:

$ n as 0.9.4 --debug some.js

Output from n --help:

Usage: n [options] [COMMAND] [args]

Commands:

  n                            Output versions installed
  n latest                     Install or activate the latest node release
  n stable                     Install or activate the latest stable node release
  n <version>                  Install node <version>
  n use <version> [args ...]   Execute node <version> with [args ...]
  n bin <version>              Output bin path for <version>
  n rm <version ...>           Remove the given version(s)
  n --latest                   Output the latest node version available
  n --stable                   Output the latest stable node version available
  n ls                         Output the versions of node available

Options:

  -V, --version   Output current version of n
  -h, --help      Display help information

Aliases:

  which   bin
  use     as
  list    ls
  -       rm

n by default installs node to /usr/local/n/versions, from which it can see what you have currently installed, and activate previously installed versions of node when n <version> is invoked again.

Activated nodes are then installed to the prefix /usr/local, which of course may be altered via the N_PREFIX environment variable.

To alter where n operates simply export N_PREFIX to whatever you prefer.

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2010 TJ Holowaychuk <[email protected]>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.