zsh-nvm

Zsh plugin for installing, updating and loading nvm

nvm is an awesome tool but it can be kind of a pain to install and keep up to date. This zsh plugin allows you to quickly setup nvm once, save it in your dotfiles, then never worry about it again.

The plugin will install the latest stable release of nvm if you don't already have it, and then automatically source it for you. You can upgrade nvm to the latest version whenever you want without losing your installed node versions by running nvm upgrade.

Although this is written as a zsh plugin, it also works with bash if you follow the manual installation instructions.

Usage

Once the plugin's installed nvm will be available. You'll probably want to load this as one of your first plugins so node/npm is available for any other plugins that may require them.

zsh-nvm also wraps nvm in some additional functionality.

Upgrade

If you want to upgrade to the latest release of nvm:

% nvm upgrade
Installed version is v0.31.0
Checking latest version of nvm...
Updating to v0.31.3...
Previous HEAD position was 2176894... v0.31.0
HEAD is now at 56417f8... v0.31.3

Revert

If an upgrade breaks something don't worry, reverting back to the previously installed version is simple:

% nvm revert
Installed version is v0.31.3
Reverting to v0.31.0...
Previous HEAD position was 56417f8... v0.31.3
HEAD is now at 2176894... v0.31.0

Install

You can install the latest Node.js nightlies or release candidates with nvm install nightly|rc. Aliases will automatically be created so you can easily nvm use nightly|rc in the future:

% nvm install rc
Downloading and installing node v8.0.0-rc.1...
Downloading https://nodejs.org/download/rc//v8.0.0-rc.1/node-v8.0.0-rc.1-darwin-x64.tar.xz...
######################################################################## 100.0%
Computing checksum with shasum -a 256
Checksums matched!
Now using node v8.0.0-rc.1 (npm v5.0.0-beta.56)
rc -> v8.0.0-rc.1
Clearing mirror cache...
Done!

Note: This is a bit of a hack and leaving rc|nightly versions installed may break nvm when it eventually supports them itself. It's recommended that you don't leave the these versions of Node.js installed. Install them, test/play with them and then uninstall them when you're done.

Options

Custom Directory

You can specify a custom directory to use with nvm by exporting the NVM_DIR environment variable. It must be set before zsh-nvm is loaded.

For example, if you are using antigen, you would put the following in your .zshrc:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.custom-nvm-dir"
antigen bundle lukechilds/zsh-nvm

Note: If nvm doesn't exist in this directory it'll be automatically installed when you start a session.

Lazy Loading

If you find nvm adds too much lag to your shell startup you can enable lazy loading by exporting the NVM_LAZY_LOAD environment variable and setting it to true. It must be set before zsh-nvm is loaded.

Lazy loading is around 70x faster (874ms down to 12ms for me), however the first time you run nvm, npm, node or a global module you'll get a slight delay while nvm loads first. You'll only get this delay once per session.

For example, if you are using antigen, you would put the following in your .zshrc:

export NVM_LAZY_LOAD=true
antigen bundle lukechilds/zsh-nvm

Performance comparison:

% time (source "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh")
( source "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"; )  0.58s user 0.37s system 109% cpu 0.874 total

% time (_zsh_nvm_lazy_load)
( _zsh_nvm_lazy_load; )  0.01s user 0.01s system 168% cpu 0.012 total

Don't autoload node

By default when nvm is loaded it'll automatically run nvm use default and load your default node version along with npm and any global modules. You can disable this behaviour by exporting the NVM_NO_USE environment variable and setting it to true. It must be set before zsh-nvm is loaded.

If you enable this option you will then need to manually run nvm use <version> before you can use node.

For example, if you are using antigen, you would put the following in your .zshrc:

export NVM_NO_USE=true
antigen bundle lukechilds/zsh-nvm

Auto use

If you have lots of projects with an .nvmrc file you may find the auto use option helpful. If it's enabled, when you cd into a directory with an .nvmrc file, zsh-nvm will automatically load or install the required node version in .nvmrc. You can enable it by exporting the NVM_AUTO_USE environment variable and setting it to true. It must be set before zsh-nvm is loaded.

If you enable this option and don't have nvm loaded in the current session (NVM_LAZY_LOAD or NVM_NO_USE) it won't work until you've loaded nvm.

For example, if you are using antigen, you would put the following in your .zshrc:

export NVM_AUTO_USE=true
antigen bundle lukechilds/zsh-nvm

Installation

Using Antigen

Bundle zsh-nvm in your .zshrc

antigen bundle lukechilds/zsh-nvm

Using zplug

Load zsh-nvm as a plugin in your .zshrc

zplug "lukechilds/zsh-nvm"

Using zgen

Include the load command in your .zshrc

zgen load lukechilds/zsh-nvm

As an Oh My ZSH! custom plugin

Clone zsh-nvm into your custom plugins repo

git clone https://github.com/lukechilds/zsh-nvm ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-nvm

Then load as a plugin in your .zshrc

plugins+=(zsh-nvm)

Keep in mind that plugins need to be added before oh-my-zsh.sh is sourced.

Manually

Clone this repository somewhere (~/.zsh-nvm for example)

git clone https://github.com/lukechilds/zsh-nvm.git ~/.zsh-nvm

Then source it in your .zshrc (or .bashrc)

source ~/.zsh-nvm/zsh-nvm.plugin.zsh

Tests

To run the tests you'll need to install Urchin. You'll also need to run the tests in an environment that doesn't already have node or nvm loaded.

You can remove nvm from the existing session with:

nvm deactivate && nvm unload

Run the tests with:

urchin -s zsh tests

Related

• zsh-better-npm-completion - Better completion for npm

License

MIT © Luke Childs