Install NPM into home directory with distribution nodejs package (Ubuntu)

Question

I\'d like to use the distribution Node.js packages (or the chris-lea ppa for more recent releases) but install NPM to my home directory.

This may seem picky, but it

Answer 1

Jake's answer was posted in 2012 and while useful it references Chris Lea's Node.js PPAs who are no longer updated since march 2015.

Here's the steps I use to install Node.js and npm in my home directory:

Install Node.js with nvm (no sudo required):

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.2/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install 7
npm install -g npm  # update npm

Now you can install -g without sudo and everything goes into ~/.nvm/

Or install Node.js without nvm (official instructions):

Install Node.js

• Node.js v6 (current LTS as of May 2017):

  curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -
  sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
  

• Node.js v7:

  curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | sudo -E bash -
  sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
  

Change npm's default directory to a local one:

mkdir ~/.npm-global
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"  # ← put this line in .bashrc
source ~/.bashrc  # if you only updated .bashrc

Alternatively replace .npm-global by the directory of your choice.

Update npm and check it is installed in your $HOME directory:

$ npm install npm -g
/home//.npm-global/bin/npm -> /home//.npm-global/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js
/home//.npm-global/lib
└─┬ npm@3.10.6 
  ├─┬ glob@7.0.5 
  │ └── minimatch@3.0.2 
  ├── npm-user-validate@0.1.5 
  └── rimraf@2.5.3 

Now you can install -g without sudo and without messing with your system files.