ysmood / use-node

The next generation node version manager

Overview

No need to setup anything, just run the use-node, then you can use the right node version under your shell.

• Works the same across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• No options, no configs, just run use-node under your node project.
• Auto-detect the standard engines config recursively from all parent folders.
• Auto-choose the fastest registry to download node.
• Auto-cache the node binary.
• Lightweight and fast.
• Reports every side-effect it makes on the system, such as where the node is installed.

Installation

Go to the release page and download the use-node binary, run the command below to install use-node to your PATH:

use-node -i

On macOS you might need to do below to trust the binary before run it:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/use-node

If you have golang installed:

go install github.com/ysmood/use-node@latest

Use it outside node project

If you want to use it without the package.json file, just specify the node version you want:

use-node v19

Shell Setup

If you want to let it setup PATH env on shell startup, on unix like OS add this line to your .bashrc or .zshrc files:

export PATH=$PATH:$(use-node -p v19.8.1)

If you want to run use-node whenever you cd to a directory, add this line to your .bashrc or .zshrc files:

eval "$(use-node -s)"

On Windows, run use-node -p v19.8.1, copy the output directory path and add it to PATH.

How it works

When you run the use-node. It first recognize the engines field in package.json and automatically download or use the best node version from cache. Then it spawns a sub-shell and inject the node path to your PATH, your current stdio will transparently pipe to the sub-shell.