4 ways to update to the latest Node.js version on a Mac

ByPanu Pitkamaki

Development is picking pace, and Node.js is shipping out a new version frequently. It is nice to have the latest version at hand in your development environment to test out new features.

There are a few ways to install Node.js. One of the obvious ones is to download the installer from nodejs.org. However, you might not want to be downloading a new installer every time there's a new version out.

Here are few alternative ways to update to the latest version of Node.js on a Mac.

Nvm

Nvm is a script-based node version manager. You can install it easily with a curl and bash one-liner as described in the documentation. It's also available on Homebrew.

Assuming you have successfully installed nvm. The following will install the latest version of node.

nvm install node --reinstall-packages-from=node

The last option installs all global npm packages over to your new version. This way packages like mocha and node-inspector keep working.

N

N is an npm-based node version manager. You can install it by installing first some version of node and then running npm install -g n.

Assuming you have successfully installed n. The following will install the latest version of node.

sudo n latest

Homebrew

Homebrew is one of the two popular package managers for Mac. Assuming you have previously installed node with brew install node. You can get up-to-date with formulae and upgrade to the latest Node.js version with the following.

brew update
brew upgrade node

MacPorts

MacPorts is the other package manager for Mac. The following will update the local ports tree to get access to updated versions. Then it will install the latest version of Node.js. This works even if you have a previous version of the package installed.

sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install nodejs-devel

There also exists nodejs alternative to nodejs-devel that follows the long term support line.

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