Can someone tell me how to run Node.js on Unix?

I downloaded version v0.8.9 onto a unix account but I dont know how to run and test it... Theres no configure file and I cant find the directions online...

For some reason they make the source build dependencies and instructions difficult to find.

See this page: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installation

Prerequisites:

  • GNU make 3.81 or newer. Pre-installed on most systems. Sometimes called gmake.

  • python 2.6 or 2.7. The build tools distributed with Node run on python.

  • libssl-dev (Node v0.6.x only.) Can usually be installed on *NIX systems with your favorite package manager. Pre-installed on OS X.

  • libexecinfo (FreeBSD and OpenBSD only.) Required by V8. pkg_add -r libexecinfo installs it.

To install:

  • tar -zxf node-v0.6.18.tar.gz (Download this from nodejs.org)
  • cd node-v0.6.18
  • ./configure
  • make
  • sudo make install

Then you should be able to just type node to enter a REPL to do some basic testing. Otherwise search the web for books and tutorials.

It turns out I mistakenly downloaded the linux binary files and unpacked that. You have to download the source code (tar.gz) file. The binaries dont have the './configure' to run it.