Set default node version with NVM

Aug 23, 2016

I was recently figuring out how to use nvm, and one thing that stood out to me is that I needed to set the default version of node that I wanted to use when opening a new tab.

Because I was new to using nvm it took me a while to find the commands. So, if you happen to find this article while configuring nvm, hopefully you find this useful.

# Install the version that you would like 
nvm install 12.20.1

# Set 12.20.1 (or another version) as default
nvm alias default 12.20.1

Then you can open a new tab and if you run node -v, you should see v6.1.0 (or whichever version you set as the default.

Easy peasy, right? Hopefully this helps you if you’re having some issues!

Responses

Rocco Tripaldi

August 23, 2016

Thanks for sharing, I was having this same problem with nvm, and I didn’t even realize it! Does that make sense :p

Reply
1. Eric Binnion
  
  August 23, 2016
  
  Makes sense to me ? I could totally see how someone would think that they just had to use nvm use 6.1.0 each time they opened a tab, because that’s what I did for a little bit. ?
  
  Reply
blowery

August 23, 2016

https://github.com/wbyoung/avn is pretty handy too. It looks for a special dotfile and automatically switches the node version.

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1. Eric Binnion
  
  August 23, 2016
  
  And here I was trying to be helpful to others, and I learned something. ?
  
  Reply
2. blowery
  
  August 23, 2016
  
  There’s also this monster issue on the nvm repo: https://github.com/creationix/nvm/issues/110
  
  Reply
JOANDER VIEIRA CANDIDO

June 1, 2017

Obrigado !

Reply
Josh Betz

July 17, 2017

I find nvm to be pretty slow, so I install the latest version with homebrew and just use nvm if I want to temporarily switch to a different version. If you load it with –no-use, it�s much faster, but you have to manually activate whatever version you want.

https://github.com/joshbetz/dotfiles/blob/407c2828839ac12bfdd17c5f84c2d6bc0df0e944/shell/env#L7-L9

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C. L. Jones

August 3, 2017

Great, thanks!

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Brad Parks

September 6, 2017

you can also do “nvm alias default node” and it will do it for the latest version of node you have

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1. Eric Binnion
  
  September 6, 2017
  
  Thank for the tip!
  
  Reply
Mac Liems

September 19, 2017

I have this weird issue with nvm and Yarn:
I have defaulted nvm to node version 8.4.0. Now, when I do yarn �version, I get an old version (0.27.5).
However, when I do nvm use 8.4.0 (which should not be necessary), THEN I get the new version of Yarn (1.0.2). Is there an explanation for this strange behaviour?

Reply
1. Eric Binnion
  
  September 20, 2017
  
  Off of the top of my head, I’m not too sure. The only thing I can think of is that the defaulting is not working properly and that you’re getting different global versions of Yarn?
  
  Reply
DV

October 26, 2017

ohh! thank you very much for tha tuto!

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Mario

November 29, 2017

Muchas gracias!!!

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Vin�cius

January 22, 2018

Nice tweak man, thanks for sharing!

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fred

January 30, 2018

thats what i was looking for; thx

in retrospect,
nvm | grep default

shows the options on the command line (mac / linux) , but your blog got me there first

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Adam Becker

February 7, 2018

Thanks! Very helpful.

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kevin s

February 12, 2018

Thanks. If the nvm documentation was made of paper, I’d burn it. geezus

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Eduardo Paix�o

July 14, 2018

Thanks! 😀

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1. Eric Binnion
  
  July 15, 2018
  
  You’re welcome! 🙂
  
  Reply
David

September 10, 2018

Does it work with windows? How would it be for windows?

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Raphael

September 14, 2018

Thank you ?

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Manmohan

October 28, 2018

Thank you, it’s very helpful 🙂

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Rob Dyson

October 29, 2018

Thanks for this!

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Jasmine Martin

November 19, 2018

Thank you for making that quick and to the point! Bless

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Dan Hauk

December 4, 2018

Thanks! It was always a pain forgetting to change versions and getting errors when running npm start. This is exactly what I was looking for.

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Sonic

December 6, 2018

Thanks a lot! ?

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Denis Howe

January 18, 2019

The first time you do an “nvm install”, it sets “nvm alias default” (in ~/.nvm/alias) to the version you install. nvm.sh will then give you that version in every new shell, even if you nvm install a different version. In order to let nvm install set a new default, you can clear the existing one with
nvm alias default ”
HtH

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John

February 22, 2019

Thanks for sharing, mate!

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Ben

March 13, 2019

Thanks. This will save me some time each time my machine restarts!

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Robin

March 27, 2019

Thanks!

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Jonathan Quimbly

April 4, 2019

Thanks kindly. https://nvm.sh/ doesn’t let as clearly how to do this.

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Luke Chinworth

April 25, 2019

Thanks!

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Ishika

May 3, 2019

Thanks much!

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Ayoub

May 15, 2019

Thank you

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volodymyr

June 5, 2019

Thank you very match

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Maxwell Souza de Carvalho

June 17, 2019

Very straightfoward, thank you

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Chad

July 12, 2019

Thank you!

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Tim

October 25, 2019

Thanks! Solved my problem ?

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Gabriel

November 26, 2019

Thank you.

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Nate

January 16, 2020

Very useful, thank you!

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Osk

May 12, 2020

Thanks again. Once yearly I fall here.

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1. Eric Binnion
  
  May 12, 2020
  
  hehe. You’re always welcome back ?
  
  Reply
Mark George

June 30, 2020

Thanks Eric. You know this is the top hit on the Googs for setting default node version with nvm?

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1. Eric Binnion
  
  June 30, 2020
  
  hehe. #winning
  
  Reply
  1. Sten
    
    May 5, 2021
    
    Yup, I was just searching for this and found you! ? Thanks!
    
    Reply
Frank

September 22, 2021

This is like the third time your post save my day.

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nunyvega

December 16, 2021

Thanks! you’ll save me multiple `nvm use 16.7.0`

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