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Markdown
285 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# `n` – Interactively Manage Your Node.js Versions
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[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/n)
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[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/n)
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[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/n)
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[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/n)
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Node.js version management: no subshells, no profile setup, no convoluted API, just **simple**.
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- [`n` – Interactively Manage Your Node.js Versions](#n--interactively-manage-your-nodejs-versions)
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- [Supported Platforms](#supported-platforms)
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- [Installation](#installation)
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- [Third Party Installers](#third-party-installers)
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- [Installing Node.js Versions](#installing-nodejs-versions)
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- [Specifying Node.js Versions](#specifying-nodejs-versions)
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- [Removing Versions](#removing-versions)
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- [Using Downloaded Node.js Versions Without Reinstalling](#using-downloaded-nodejs-versions-without-reinstalling)
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- [Preserving npm](#preserving-npm)
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- [Miscellaneous](#miscellaneous)
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- [Custom Source](#custom-source)
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- [Custom Architecture](#custom-architecture)
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- [Optional Environment Variables](#optional-environment-variables)
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- [How It Works](#how-it-works)
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## Supported Platforms
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`n` is supported on macOS, Linux, including with Windows Subsystem for Linux, and various other unix-like systems.
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It is written as a BASH script but does not require you to use BASH as your command shell.
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`n` does not work in native shells on Microsoft Windows (like PowerShell), or Git for Windows BASH, or with the Cygwin DLL.
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## Installation
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If you already have Node.js installed, an easy way to install `n` is using `npm`:
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npm install -g n
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The `n` command downloads and installs to `/usr/local` by default, but you may override this location by defining `N_PREFIX`.
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`n` caches Node.js versions in subdirectory `n/versions`. The _active_ Node.js version is installed in subdirectories `bin`, `include`, `lib`, and `share`.
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To avoid requiring `sudo` for `n` and `npm` global installs, it is suggested you either install to your home directory using `N_PREFIX`, or take ownership of the system directories:
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# make cache folder (if missing) and take ownership
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sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/n
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sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/n
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# make sure the required folders exist (safe to execute even if they already exist)
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sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin /usr/local/lib /usr/local/include /usr/local/share
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# take ownership of Node.js install destination folders
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sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/bin /usr/local/lib /usr/local/include /usr/local/share
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-----
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If `npm` is not yet available, one way to bootstrap an install:
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curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tj/n/master/bin/n -o n
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bash n lts
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# Now node and npm are available
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npm install -g n
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Alternatively, you can clone this repo and
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make install
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to install `n` to `bin/n` of the directory specified in the environment variable `$PREFIX`, which defaults to `/usr/local` (note that you will likely need to use `sudo`). To install `n` in a custom location (such as `$CUSTOM_LOCATION/bin/n`), run `PREFIX=$CUSTOM_LOCATION make install`.
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### Third Party Installers
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On macOS with [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) you can install the [n formula](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/n.rb).
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brew install n
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Or on macOS with [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/) you can install the [n port](https://ports.macports.org/port/n/summary):
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port install n
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On Linux and macOS, [n-install](https://github.com/mklement0/n-install) allows installation directly from GitHub; for instance:
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curl -L https://git.io/n-install | bash
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n-install sets both `PREFIX` and `N_PREFIX` to `$HOME/n`, installs `n` to `$HOME/n/bin`, modifies the initialization files of supported shells to export `N_PREFIX` and add `$HOME/n/bin` to the `PATH`, and installs the latest LTS Node.js version.
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As a result, both `n` itself and all Node.js versions it manages are hosted inside a single, optionally configurable directory, which you can later remove with the included `n-uninstall` script. `n-update` updates `n` itself to the latest version. See the [n-install repo](https://github.com/mklement0/n-install) for more details.
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## Installing Node.js Versions
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Simply execute `n <version>` to download and install a version of Node.js. If `<version>` has already been downloaded, `n` will install from its cache.
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n 10.16.0
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n lts
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Execute `n` on its own to view your downloaded versions, and install the selected version.
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$ n
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node/4.9.1
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ο node/8.11.3
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node/10.15.0
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Use up/down arrow keys to select a version, return key to install, d to delete, q to quit
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(You can also use <kbd>j</kbd> and <kbd>k</kbd> to select next or previous version instead of using arrows, or <kbd>ctrl+n</kbd> and <kbd>ctrl+p</kbd>.)
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If the active node version does not change after install, try opening a new shell in case seeing a stale version.
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## Specifying Node.js Versions
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There are a variety of ways of specifying the target Node.js version for `n` commands. Most commands use the latest matching version, and `n ls-remote` lists multiple matching versions.
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Numeric version numbers can be complete or incomplete, with an optional leading `v`.
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- `4.9.1`
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- `8`: 8.x.y versions
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- `v6.1`: 6.1.x versions
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There are labels for two especially useful versions:
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- `lts`: newest Long Term Support official release
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- `latest`, `current`: newest official release
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There is an `auto` label to read the target version from a file in the current directory, or any parent directory. `n` looks for in order:
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- `.n-node-version`: version on single line. Custom to `n`.
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- `.node-version`: version on single line. Used by multiple tools: [node-version-usage](https://github.com/shadowspawn/node-version-usage)
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- `.nvmrc`: version on single line. Used by `nvm`.
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- if no version file found, look for `engine` as below.
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The `engine` label looks for a `package.json` file and reads the `engines` field to determine compatible Node.js. Requires an installed version of `node`, and uses `npx semver` to resolve complex ranges.
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There is support for the named release streams:
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- `argon`, `boron`, `carbon`: codenames for LTS release streams
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These Node.js support aliases may be used, although simply resolve to the latest matching version:
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- `active`, `lts_active`, `lts_latest`, `lts`, `current`, `supported`
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The last version form is for specifying [other releases](https://nodejs.org/download) available using the name of the remote download folder optionally followed by the complete or incomplete version.
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- `nightly`
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- `test/v11.0.0-test20180528`
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- `rc/10`
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## Removing Versions
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Remove some cached versions:
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n rm 0.9.4 v0.10.0
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Removing all cached versions except the installed version:
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n prune
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Remove the installed Node.js (does not affect the cached versions). This can be useful
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to revert to the system version of node (if in a different location), or if you no longer
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wish to use node and npm, or are switching to a different way of managing them.
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n uninstall
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## Using Downloaded Node.js Versions Without Reinstalling
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There are three commands for working directly with your downloaded versions of Node.js, without reinstalling.
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You can show the path to the downloaded `node` version:
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$ n which 6.14.3
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/usr/local/n/versions/6.14.3/bin/node
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Or run a downloaded `node` version with the `n run` command:
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n run 8.11.3 --debug some.js
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Or execute a command with `PATH` modified so `node` and `npm` will be from the downloaded Node.js version.
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(NB: `npm` run this way will be using global node_modules from the target node version folder.)
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n exec 10 my-script --fast test
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n exec lts zsh
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## Preserving npm
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A Node.js install normally includes `npm` as well, but you may wish to preserve an updated `npm` and `npx` leaving them out of the install using `--preserve`:
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$ npm install -g npm@latest
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...
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$ npm --version
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6.13.7
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$ n -p 8
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installed : v8.17.0
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$ npm --version
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6.13.7
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You can make this the default by setting `N_PRESERVE_NPM` to a non-empty string.
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export N_PRESERVE_NPM=1
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You can be explicit to get the desired behaviour whatever the environment variable:
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n --preserve nightly
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n --no-preserve latest
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## Miscellaneous
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Command line help can be obtained from `n --help`.
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List matching remote versions available for download:
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n ls-remote lts
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n ls-remote latest
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n lsr 10
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n --all lsr
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List downloaded versions in cache:
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n ls
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Display diagnostics to help resolve problems:
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n doctor
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## Custom Source
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If you would like to use a different Node.js mirror which has the same layout as the default <https://nodejs.org/dist/>, you can define `N_NODE_MIRROR`.
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The most common example is from users in China who can define:
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export N_NODE_MIRROR=https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/node
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If the custom mirror requires authentication you can add the [url-encoded](https://urlencode.org) username and password into the URL. e.g.
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export N_NODE_MIRROR=https://encoded-username:encoded-password@host:port/path
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There is also `N_NODE_DOWNLOAD_MIRROR` for a different mirror with same layout as the default <https://nodejs.org/download>.
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## Custom Architecture
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By default `n` picks the binaries matching your system architecture. For example, on a 64 bit system `n` will download 64 bit binaries.
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On a Mac with Apple silicon:
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- for Node.js 16 and higher, `n` defaults to arm64 binaries which run natively
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- for older versions of Node.js, `n` defaults to x64 binaries which run in Rosetta 2
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You can override the default architecture by using the `-a` or `--arch` option.
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e.g. reinstall latest version of Node.js with x64 binaries:
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n rm current
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n --arch x64 current
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## Optional Environment Variables
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The `n` command downloads and installs to `/usr/local` by default, but you may override this location by defining `N_PREFIX`.
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To change the location to say `$HOME/.n`, add lines like the following to your shell initialization file:
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export N_PREFIX=$HOME/.n
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export PATH=$N_PREFIX/bin:$PATH
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`n` defaults to using xz compressed Node.js tarballs for the download if it is likely tar on the system supports xz decompression.
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You can override the automatic choice by setting an environment variable to zero or non-zero:
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export N_USE_XZ=0 # to disable
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export N_USE_XZ=1 # to enable
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You can be explicit to get the desired behaviour whatever the environment variable:
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n install --use-xz nightly
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n install --no-use-xz latest
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In brief:
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- `N_NODE_MIRROR`: See [Custom source](#custom-source)
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- `N_NODE_DOWNLOAD_MIRROR`: See [Custom source](#custom-source)
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- support for [NO_COLOR](https://no-color.org) and [CLICOLOR=0](https://bixense.com/clicolors) for controlling use of ANSI color codes
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- `N_MAX_REMOTE_MATCHES` to change the default `ls-remote` maximum of 20 matching versions
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- `N_PRESERVE_NPM`: See [Preserving npm](#preserving-npm)
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## How It Works
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`n` downloads a prebuilt Node.js package and installs to a single prefix (e.g. `/usr/local`). This overwrites the previous version. The `bin` folder in this location should be in your `PATH` (e.g. `/usr/local/bin`).
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The downloads are kept in a cache folder to be used for reinstalls. The downloads are also available for limited use using `n which` and `n run` and `n exec`.
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The global `npm` packages are not changed by the install, with the
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exception of `npm` itself which is part of the Node.js install.
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