Recently, I came across an excellent and detailed Node.js installation post that caught my attention since it focused on how to avoid using sudo. The “Long Version” part proved most helped as it goes into detail on the what and why of every action you perform. A great read if command line isn’t your strongest area.
I realized a lot of what was discussed I had done earlier for installing the excellent rbenv tool so I deviated a little from the instructions by installing Node.js into a hidden folder in my home directory (e.g. ~/.node) and then updating my path in my ~/.bash_profile file. That last step I had to change to the following:
$ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.node/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
I’ve grown used to installing from source lately where in the past I wouldn’t have but with enough of the projects I’m interested being hosted on GitHub (which I love) the workflow I know well and remains consistent so it makes sense. Its worth the effort rather than installing from a third party like Homebrew where it might not have the latest version (which I encountered when attempting to install Node.js).
For some of you this might seem trivial but a lot of this I didn’t take the time to understand. Now though I know the difference that by installing into my home directory I can avoid using sudo and take control of the tools I depend on.