Virtual Environments for Node
npm install naveVirtual Environments for Node.
Switch out your node version and global npm install space in one
command. Supports named environments. Uses subshells by default so
that you can ^D or exit out of an environment quickly.
No need to edit .bashrc or .profile, just install and go.
If you want a global nave command, you could install this thing with
npm. But that's not really necessary. You can run the nave.sh
shell script from here, or symlink it wherever you want, or even
just download the script and just put it where you want it.
``
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/isaacs/nave/main/nave.sh > /usr/local/bin/nave
chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/nave
If you have npm, presumably you already have Node, so it's a tiny bit
silly, but maybe you like installing the top-level Node some other
way, and install your subshell version switcher with npm. Why is a
bash program in npm anyway? It's fine. Bits don't judge.
`
npm install -g nave
To use a version of node, you do this:
`
nave use
If you want to name a virtual env, you can do this:
`
nave use
If that virtual env doesn't already exist, it'll prompt you to choose
a version.
Both of these commands drop you into a subshell. Exit the shell with
exit or ^D to go back from whence you came.
Here's the full usage statement:
`
Usage: nave
COMMANDS
install
install
use
use
use
If the name already exists, but the version differs,
then it will update the link.
usemain
clean
uninstall
ls List versions currently installed
ls-remote List remote node versions
ls-all List remote and local node versions
latest Show the most recent dist version
cache Clear or view the cache
help Output help information
auto Find a .naverc and then be in that env
If no .naverc is found, then alias for 'nave exit'
auto
If no .naverc is found, then alias for 'nave exit' in
the specified directory.
auto
in that env
If no .naverc is found, then alias for 'nave exit
in the specified directory.
should-auto Exits with 1 if the nave auto env already
matches the config, or 0 if a change should
be made (ie, by calling 'nave auto')
An explicit call to 'nave use' or 'nave exit' will
tell nave that it should NOT auto.
get
exit Unset all the NAVE environs (use with 'exec')
exit
(Note that nave will still set NAVE_EXIT=1 in order to
prevent 'nave should-auto' from evaluating true.)
VERSION STRINGS
Any command that calls for a version can be provided any of the
following "version-ish" identifies:
- x.y.z A specific SemVer tuple
- x.y Major and minor version number
- x Just a major version number
- lts The most recent LTS (long-term support) node version
- lts/
- lts/* Same as just "lts"
- latest The most recent (non-LTS) version
- stable Backwards-compatible alias for "lts".
To exit a nave subshell, type 'exit' or press ^D.
To run nave without a subshell, do 'exec nave use
To clear the settings from a nave env, use 'exec nave exit'
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables can be set to change nave's behavior.
NAVE_DIR Root directory for nave to operate in. Defaults to
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nave if set (eg, ~/.config/nave), or
~/.nave otherwise.
NAVE_NPX Set this to '1' to add node_modules/.bin to the PATH
NAVE_DEBUG Set this to '1' to run in debug mode.
NAVE_CACHE_DUR Duration in seconds to cache version information (86400)
NAVEUA User-agent header to send when fetching version information
NAVE_SRC_ONLY Set to '1' to only build node from source, and never use
binary distributions. (This is much slower!)
NAVE_JOBS Set to the number of JOBS to use when building node.
Defaults to the number of CPUs on the system.
NODEDIST The distribution server to fetch node from. Defaults to
https://nodejs.org/dist
NAVE_CONFIG Arguments to pass to ./configure when building from source.
Nave sets the following environment variables when in use:
NAVE A descriptive string of the nave setting in use.
NAVENAME The name, in named subshells, otherwise $NAVEVERSION
NAVEVERSION The version of node in use.
NAVELVL The number of subshells currently in use (like bash $SHLVL)
NAVE_LOGIN '1' in interactive nave subshells, '0' otherwise.
NAVE_ROOT Location of nave installed environments
NAVE_SRC Location of downloaded Node.js source
NAVE_AUTO_RC The .naverc file used by 'nave auto'
NAVE_AUTO_CFG The contents of the .naverc file used by 'nave auto'
CONFIGURATION FILES
Nave subshells will source the same .bashrc, .bash_profile, .zprofile, etc.
configuration files as normal shells, based on whether it is being run as a
login shell, or to run a specific command.
In addition, the following files are sourced in all nave subshells if found,
after the normal shell profile files, in the following order, based on the
resulting environment variables described above. When run in a subdirectory,
nave will walk up the directory tree looking for any of these that it finds,
but will not walk up further than any folder containing a '.git' entry.
.nave_profile_${NAVE}
.nave_profile_${NAVENAME}, if a named environment
.nave_profile_${NAVEVERSION}, eg .nave_profile_16.19.0
.nave_profile_${NAVEVERSION major.minor}, eg .nave_profile_16.19
.nave_profile_${NAVEVERSION major}, eg .nave_profile_16
.nave_profile
Finally, it will always source ${NAVEDIR}/../.naverc if present.
(eg, ~/.config/.naverc)
These may be used to set project-specific confirations, env variables, or
other behavior based on the Nave environment in use, without the use of
configuration files in the home directory.
The 'nave auto' command will walk up the directory tree looking for a
'.naverc' or '.nvmrc' file, and use the contents as arguments to 'nave use'.
`
If you prefer to not enter a subshell, just run nave with exec
`bash`
exec nave use lts/argon
You could even add something like this to your .bashrc file to save
on typing:
`bash`
n () {
exec nave "$@"
}
If there is need to run a shell script with version of node.js
provided by nave following snippet can be inserted into script:
`bash`
[ "${IN_SUBSHELL}" != "$0" ] && exec env IN_SUBSHELL="$0" nave use 5.0.0 bash "$0" "$@" || :
You can put a .naverc file in the root of your project (orlts/boron
anywhere). This file should contain the version that you want to use.
It can be something like or 16 or latest
`
echo lts/boron > ~/projects/my-project/.naverc
Then you can run nave auto to load the appropriate environment.
If you want to get even more absurd/automated, put this in your bash
settings (like ~/.bashrc or whatever)
`
alias cd='exec nave auto'
and then every time you cd into a different folder, it'll
automatically load the correct nave settings, or exit nave-land if no
automatic stuff could be found.
Note that doing this will also cause it to exit the nave environment
when you cd to a directory that doesn't have a nave setting, so it can
interfere with "normal" nave operation.
Also, aliasing cd is a very all-consuming type of change to make toexec nave auto
one's system. You might wish to give it some other name, so that you
can switch directories without affecting environment variables as a
potentially surprising side effect, or even just run
as an explicit action whenever you want this behavior to happen.
Bottom line, it's your shell, and I hope that this helps you enjoy it
more :)
Ok, put this snippet in a PROMPT_COMMAND export in your bash.bashrc
profile ( or .bash_profile or whatever you use for
that).
`bash`
export PROMPT_COMMAND='nave should-auto && exec nave auto'
Now you'll always be in the configured nave environment in any
project with a .naverc (or .nvmrc), and always _not_ in a
nave environment in your main shell in any folder that isn't
set up for nave auto.
This has no effect on the normal nave subshells you get from
nave use.
The output of your PROMPT_COMMAND is used for the main bash
prompt, so you can also do some fancy stuff like this:
`bash`
__prompt () {
if nave should-auto; then
exec nave auto
if
# Show the nave version in white-on-blue, but the "normal" node
# version in green
if [ "$NAVE" != "" ]; then
echo -ne " \03344;37mnode@$NAVE\033[0m"
else
echo -ne " \033[32mnode@$(node -p 'process.version.slice(1)' 2>/dev/null)\033[0m"
fi
}
PS1="\\$ "
export PROMPT_COMMAND='__prompt'
* $NAVE The current shell. Either a version, or a name and version.$NAVE_NPX
* Set to "1" to add node_modules/.bin to the$PATH
in all nave shells (including the main shell when exec
nave auto is used).$NAVE_AUTO_RC
* The .naverc file found by nave auto.$NAVE_AUTO_CFG
* The contents of the .naverc file that wasnave auto
read when entering the environment.$NAVENAME
* The name of the current shell. Equal to $NAVEVERSION
in unnammed environments.
* The version of node that the current shell isnode -v
pointing to. (This should comply with .)$NAVELVL
* The level of nesting in the subshell.$NAVE_DEBUG
* Set to 1 to run nave in bash -x style.$NAVE_DIR
* Set to the location where you'd like nave to do its~/.nave
business. Defaults to .$NAVE_CONFIG
* Set this to an array of arguments to pass to./configure
. Defaults to ("--debug"). (Note that parens are("--debug"
required to supply multiple arguments. I use
"--without-npm") on my own system, since I'm usually using nave to~/.naverc
test npm, so installing it in the subshell doesn't help much.) This
can be set in the file, or in your normal~/.bash{rc,_profile}
files.$NAVE_JOBS
* If set, this will be the number of jobs to run when$JOBS
building node. If this isn't set, it'll use the env, thensysctl -n hw.ncpu
try to guess a reasonable value based on the number of CPUs, then
fall back on 2 if fails.$NAVE_SRC_ONLY
* Set to "1" to only build from source, rather than
fetching binaries.
Patches welcome! Before spending too much time on a patch or feature
request, please [post an issue to see if it's
something that's going to be accepted or have unforeseen consequences.
Patches will usually not be accepted if they break tests or cause coverage
to drop below 100%. You can run tests with:
`
npm testor...
bash test/run.sh
And you can check coverage with:
`
npm run covor...
COV=1 bash test/run.sh && open coverage-all/kcov-merged/nave.sh.*.html
The latest coverage report can be found at
Nave is a bash program. It can still do most of its functionality if you
use zsh or fish as your shell, as long as you have bash _somewhere_, but
some of the magical stuff won't work (since obviously that has to run
inline in your shell with exec).
Nave requires bash. It will probably never work on Windows, or other
systems lack a native Bourne Again Shell. Sorry. (Patches welcome if you
can get it to work properly on Windows that _do_ have bash, like WSL and
Cygwin.)
Nave logins work with any shell, but executing a command in the nave
environment (ie, nave use 12 node program.js) requires that your shell-c
support the argument. (Bash, sh, zsh, and fish all work fine.)
Nave will source ~/.naverc on initialization of a new subshell, if it
exists and is readable.
You may control the place where nave puts things by setting the
NAVE_DIR environment variable. However, note that this must be set~/.naverc
somewhere other than , since it needs to be set in thenave
parent shell where the command is invoked.
By default, nave puts its stuff in ~/.nave/`. If this directory does
not exist and cannot be created, then it will attempt to use the location
of the nave.sh bash script itself. If it cannot write to this location,
then it will exit with an error.
nave borrows concepts, inspiration, and code from Tim Caswell's "nvm"
and Kris Kowal's "sea" programs.
Sea is really nice, but is very tied to Narwhal. Also, it's a
require.paths manager, which nave is not.
Nvm is also really nice, but has to be sourced rather than being run, and
thus is a little bit wonky for some use cases. But it doesn't involve
subshells, which makes it better for some others.