Installing a tar.gz on Linux

Question

I have downloaded Node.js from this link, which points to this link when clicking the button:

https://nodejs.org/dist/v4.1.2/node-v4.1.2-linux-x64.tar.gz

As advice from the Ubuntu community on installing the tar.gz, the following steps are followed.

$ ./configure
$ make
$ [sudo] make install

The problem is the current file I have downloaded does not contain ./configure.

So how do I install this? Should I extract this to the usr/ folder?

My OS is Debian 8 (Jessie).

Should I include the Java package from Oracle? Is it safe to extract these files to the /usr folder?

Answer 1

You can download this file from the browser or from the console. The latter is shown below (note: the specific Node.js version might be different for you):

Example :

wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v8.1.1/node-v8.1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

sudo tar -C /usr/local --strip-components 1 -xzf node-v8.1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

 #tar options:

 -x, --extract, --get
   extract files from an archive

 -f, --file ARCHIVE
   use archive file or device ARCHIVE

 -z, --gzip, --gunzip --ungzip`

You may find list of node version on http://nodejs.org/dist/

You should now have both Node.js and npm installed in “/usr/local/bin”. You can check this typing:

ls -l /usr/local/bin/node ls -l /usr/local/bin/npm

*An alternative way to install Node.js via the package manager:

Installing Node.js via package manager

Answer 2

Download the .tar.xz file form https://nodejs.org/en/ and then press Ctrl + Alt + T.

Then go to the destination that you downloaded your file to. For me it's my downloads folder. Then hit this command and Node.js will get installed on your system:

sudo tar -xf node-v16.0.0-linux-x64.tar.xz --directory=/usr/local --strip-components=1

---

This was the answer I had posted over two years ago, and here is what I recommand you right now, decompress the tarball, and keep it anywhere where your system knows ( tell it via updating $PATH ), its just a binary file, its not necessary to keep it in some specific location, you can keep it in your home directory and andd your bin folder to your bashrc or whatever shell you are using, its .rc file, and it will work just fine, at the end of the day, its just a pre-compiled binary file (inside node) nothing much.

Somebody in the comment section was saying npm, needs to be installed sepretly, this was in the early days of node back in 2012, when npm used to not ship with node, if you look inside bin folder npm binary is also there, so you dont need to install npm sepretly.

Answer 3

In case of installing from source code, you must download source code from https://nodejs.org/dist/v4.1.2/node-v4.1.2.tar.gz.

The file ending with .tar.gz is the compressed file like zip file, and you should extract the file before you can do another operation.

You can extract this file anywhere you need. In the terminal, change the location to your .tar.gz file:

$ cd /path/to/tar.gz/file

Then extract it using tar:

$ tar xvzf node-v4.1.2.tar.gz

Then change the location to the extracted directory

$ cd node-v4.1.2

After this, you can run .configure and 'make' it:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ [sudo] make install

Answer 4

Run the following commands where your ta.xz file (no need for extraction) file is located in the terminal. NB: I used Kali Linux

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/nodejs

sudo tar -xJvf node-v14.4.0-linux-x64.tar.xz -C /usr/local/lib/nodejs

export PATH=/usr/local/lib/nodejs/node-node-v14.4.0-linux-x64/bin:$PATH

You can now check npm -v, node -v, and npx -v.

Answer 5

Using the make utility is only necessary if you're compiling software. However, the tarballs provided by nodejs.org contain compiled binaries, not source code. Really you don't need to install it to use.

You can simply cd into the bin directory and run it via ./node. Though I'll say it's pretty useful to have it in your PATH. Where you put this directory doesn't really matter.

If you're installing it locally on your own machine, you can just untar it, tar xvfz node*tar.gz, to your home directory, add this to the file ~/.bashrc, and append the directory path your your PATH environment variable like so PATH=$PATH:/home/USERNAME/DIRECTORY/bin. Just change the path to the exact path to the bin folder in the directory you extracted.

You can also add these files to a directory that's already in your path, such as /usr/share or /usr/local by simple copying the files from the archive into these folders, as they share the same structure.

Answer 6

STEP 1:

Download your version of Node.js from the Node.js website or use the below command with your version:

wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v8.1.1/node-v8.1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

You will get a Node.js file tar file after the above step.

STEP 2:

Just use the below command for installation

sudo tar -C /usr/local --strip-components 1 -xvf node-v8.1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

Answer 7

I am mentioning version-specific installation of NVM and Node.js.

If you don't have brew installed, run this:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

If you don't have wget installed, run this:

brew install wget

To install Node.js of a specific version, run these commands: Here, I'm installing NVM - v0.33.1 and Node.js of v0.12.6.

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.1/install.sh | bash

source ~/.bashrc

nvm install v0.12.6

command -v nvm  //verify install

Answer 8

You can do some this:

# Using Ubuntu or Debian
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_[version].x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Where [version] must be replaced for your version of Node.js that you required install

For example, I required to install Node.js v.12

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Answer 9

Download a suitable installation from https://nodejs.org/en/download/

Incase of CentOS

1. Go to the downloaded file location

2. Execute the following sudo tar -C /usr/local --strip-components 1 -xf "name of the tar.xz downloaded"

3. Check the installed version is correct node --version

Answer 10

The given solution is correct, but it works for the source file and not the Linux distribution link used in the question above.

$ ./configure
$ make
$ [sudo] make install

The correct link is: https://nodejs.org/dist/v8.11.2/node-v8.11.2.tar.gz and we can use the above steps after downloading and extracting this file.

Answer 11

Download the latest version of Node.js from the official site, https://nodejs.org/en/

Steps to install:

1. Extract to any of the directories where you wish to install Node.js using a command or archive manager window

2. Open the terminal

3. Run '$sudo su'

4. Being superuser and open the profile file using 'nano ~/.profile'

5. At the end of the file, add:

    # Node.js
    export PATH=/path-to-bin.executable:$PATH
   

   The path to bin application located within the bin folder of Node.js extracted folder is to be pasted in the above line

6. Save using Ctrl + O then come out by Ctrl + X

7. Refresh profile by the command '.~/.profile'

8. Come out of superuser by the 'exit' command

9. Again for normal users, use 'sudo'

10. 'sudo nano ~/.profile'

11. Add the line at the end:

    # Node.js
    export PATH=/path-to-bin.executable:$PATH
    

    Same as in step 5

    Save and exit

12. Here the refresh command as above won't work, so restart the system to finish installation correctly

13. To get the version, issue 'node -v'

Answer 12

nodejs.org downloads

Inspect the download. If it does not have bin or sbin folders it is *source". So assuming you have downloaded it somewhere under ~ just extract it, cd into the folder and go from there. If you have to, create a temporary folder.

You won't have (or should not have) permissions in /usr/local and unzipping into /usr/local is very hard to back out. I have not reported the answers above as malicious, because they were written for specific files. But never just blindly unzip into a folder structure.