What is the suggested way to install brew, node.js, io.js, nvm, npm on OS X?

Question

I am trying to use homebrew as much as possible. What\'s the suggested way to install the following on OS X?

• node.js
• io.js
• nvm
• npm

Answer 1

2019 update: Use NVM to install node, not Homebrew

In most of the answers , recommended way to install nvm is to use Homebrew

Do not do that

At Github Page for nvm it is clearly called out:

Homebrew installation is not supported. If you have issues with homebrew-installed nvm, please brew uninstall it, and install it using the instructions below, before filing an issue.

Use the following method instead

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.11/install.sh | bash

The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm and adds the source line to your profile (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.bashrc).

And then use nvm to install node. For example to install latest LTS version do:

nvm install v8.11.1

Clean and hassle free. It would mark this as your default node version as well so you should be all set

Answer 2

You should install node.js with nvm, because that way you do not have to provide superuser privileges when installing global packages (you can simply execute "npm install -g packagename" without prepending 'sudo').

Brew is fantastic for other things, however. I tend to be biased towards Bower whenever I have the option to install something with Bower.

Answer 3

Here's what I do:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.20.0/install.sh | bash
cd / && . ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && nvm install 0.10.35
. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && nvm alias default 0.10.35

No Homebrew for this one.

nvm soon will support io.js, but not at time of posting: https://github.com/creationix/nvm/issues/590

Then install everything else, per-project, with a package.json and npm install.