Examples
# Same as `node` but with Node 12
$ nve 12 node
Welcome to Node.js v12.22.12.
Type ".help" for more information.
> .exit
# Same as `node file.js` but with Node 8
$ nve 8 node file.js
# Any command can be used
$ nve 12 npm test
# Execute a local binary
$ nve 8 ava
# Run a specific version
$ nve 8.10.0 npm test
# Use a version range
$ nve "<8" npm test
# Run the latest Node.js version
$ nve latest npm test
# Run the latest LTS version
$ nve lts npm test
# Run the Node version from `~/.nvmrc` or the current process version
$ nve global npm test
# Run the current directory's Node.js version using its `.nvmrc` or `package.json` (`engines.node` field)
$ nve local npm test
# Run the Node version using a file like `.nvmrc` or `package.json`
$ nve /path/to/.nvmrc npm test
# Use a different mirror for the Node binaries
$ nve --mirror=https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/node 8 npm test
# Do not use the cached list of available Node.js versions
$ nve --fetch 8 npm test
# Always use the cached list of available Node.js versions even if it's more
# than one hour old
$ nve --no-fetch 8 npm test
# Use a different CPU architecture for the Node binaries
$ nve --arch=x32 8 npm test
# Chaining commands
$ nve 8 npm run build && nve 8 npm test
# Cache Node 8 download
$ nve 8 node --version
Examples (multiple versions)
# Run multiple versions
$ nve 12,10,8 npm test
⬢ Node 12.22.12
105 tests passed
Finished 'test' after 3.8 s
⬢ Node 10.24.1
105 tests passed
Finished 'test' after 4.2 s
⬢ Node 8.17.0
105 tests passed
Finished 'test' after 4.5 s
# Do not abort on the first version that fails
$ nve --continue 12,10,8 npm test
# Run all versions in parallel
$ nve --parallel 12,10,8 npm test
# Cache multiple Node downloads
$ nve 12,10,8 node --version
Examples (list versions)
# Prints latest Node.js version
$ nve latest
20.4.0
# Prints latest Node.js 8 version
$ nve 8
8.17.0
# Prints latest Node.js 12, 10 and 8 versions
$ nve 12,10,8
12.22.12
10.24.1
8.17.0
Demo
You can try this library:
- either directly in your browser.
- or by executing the
examples
files in a terminal.
Install
npm install -g nve
node >=18.18.0
must be globally installed. However the command run by nve
can use any Node version (providing it is compatible with it).
To use this programmatically (from Node.js) instead, please check
nvexeca
.
Options
–continue
Alias: -c
Type: boolean
Default: false
By default, when running multiple Node versions and one of those versions fails, the others are aborted. This option disables this.
–parallel
Alias: -p
Type: boolean
Default: false
When running multiple Node versions, run all of them at the same time. This is faster. However this does not work if the command:
- requires some interactive CLI input (for example using a prompt)
- is not concurrency-safe
–progress
Type: boolean
Default: true
Whether to show a progress bar while the Node binary is downloading.
–mirror
Alias: -m
Type: string
Default: https://nodejs.org/dist
Base URL to retrieve Node binaries. Can be overridden (for example
https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/node
).
The following environment variables can also be used: NODE_MIRROR
,
NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR
, N_NODE_MIRROR
or NODIST_NODE_MIRROR
.
–fetch
Alias: -f
Type: boolean
Default: undefined
The list of available Node.js versions is cached for one hour by default. With:
--fetch
: the cache will not be used--no-fetch
: the cache will be used even if it’s older than one hour
The default value is undefined
(neither of the above). When no COMMAND
is
specified (only printing the Node.js version), the default value is --fetch
instead.
–arch
Alias: -a
Type: string
Default: process.arch
Node.js binary’s CPU architecture. This is useful for example when you’re on x64 but would like to run Node.js x32.
All the values from
process.arch
are
allowed except mips
and mipsel
.
Initial download
The first time nve
is run with a new VERSION
, the Node binary is downloaded
under the hood. This initially takes few seconds. However subsequent runs are
almost instantaneous.
COMMAND
can be omitted in order to cache that initial download without
executing any commands.
Native modules
If your code is using native modules, nve
works providing:
- they are built with N-API
- the target Node.js version is
>=8.12.0
(since N-API was not available or stable before that)
Otherwise the following error message is shown:
Error: The module was compiled against a different Node.js version
.
Benchmarks
The following benchmarks compare the average time to run
nve
, nvm exec
and
npx node
:
nve: 295ms
nvm exec: 741ms
npx node: 1058ms
See also
nvexeca
: Likenve
but programmatic (from Node.js)execa
: Process execution for humansget-node
: Download Node.jspreferred-node-version
: Get the preferred Node.js version of a project or usernode-version-alias
: Resolve Node.js version aliases likelatest
,lts
orerbium
normalize-node-version
: Normalize and validate Node.js versionsall-node-versions
: List all available Node.js versionsfetch-node-website
: Fetch releases on nodejs.orgglobal-cache-dir
: Get the global cache directory