How can I set the default Node.js version with nvm?

Question

I'm using nvm to manage my Node.js versions. In my projects, I have .nvmrc files in the project root. When I run nvm use, I get the Node.js version needed for the project.

This is all working great, but when I open up a new console window, at first I always have a very old Node.js version set automatically.

Running node -v gives me 6.9.5.

What's really annoying is that my IDE (IntelliJ IDEA) runs pre-commit hooks when I use its VCS commit dialog using this old Node.js version, which makes unit tests and the commit fail.

How can I make it so that a specific version of Node.js is set as default?

score 30 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 01 '22 at 01:40

30

You can use the command nvm alias to set the default version you would like to use, for example:

nvm install 10.17.0
nvm alias default 10.17.0

edited Apr 01 '22 at 01:40

Penny Liu

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answered Nov 20 '19 at 08:40

Patrick Hund

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Do you mean `nvm install 10.17.0`? – Evi Song Feb 27 '20 at 03:30
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When I run "nvm alias default 10.17.0", it just gives me a list of available options... it just doesn't seem to do anything (and my "ng -v" continues to use the wrong, older, version of node.js) Has something changed with nvm ? – Mike Gledhill Mar 27 '20 at 10:12
It looks like windows users can't do this: https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows/issues/461 – Bryan Enid Jul 12 '22 at 05:13
@MikeGledhill I was also wondering about it, until I found out that I misspelled "alias" like "alies" )) – Bakhtiyor Sulaymonov Jul 07 '23 at 10:36

How can I set the default Node.js version with nvm?

1 Answers1