Running npm install using custom nodejs installation

If you in-fact actually want to toggle between various nodejs releases, there is an environment variable NODE_PATH which controls the directory path node uses to reach modules. The other issue is the env var PATH which the unix uses to reach executables, IE. node and npm

Additionally, node/npm uses these dirs/files :

~/.npmrc 
~/.npm  
~/tmp  
~/.npm-init.js 

those may or may not be impacted by different releases of node. If you install each release from source code you have full control of NODE_PATH and PATH

source code for all releases available at http://nodejs.org/dist/

Below are the steps to install a given release from source NOTE - this installs nodejs which gives you both node as well as npm, they come together per release.

to start fresh remove prior node.js and npm installs as well as these :

sudo mv ~/.npmrc ~/.npmrc_ignore
sudo mv ~/.npm   ~/.npm_ignore
sudo mv ~/tmp    ~/tmp_ignore
sudo mv ~/.npm-init.js ~/.npm-init.js_ignore

to install nodejs and npm as yourself NOT root do these commands (OSX/linux) :

parent_dir=${HOME}/bin_xxxx  #  replace bin_xxx with something specific 
                             #  to node release like bin_v0.10.31

mkdir ${parent_dir}

download source from : http://nodejs.org/download/

cd node-v0.xxxx

./configure   --prefix=${parent_dir}/nodejs

make -j8
make install

which puts it into dir defined by above --prefix

export PATH=${parent_dir}/nodejs/bin:$PATH

define environment variable NODE_PATH so node can find dir for modules otherwise npm install xxx will put newly installed module into dir in curr dir :

export NODE_PATH=${parent_dir}/nodejs/lib/node_modules

do above AND use syntax : npm install -g some_cool_module always use the -g for global so it gets installed into dir $NODE_PATH and not your $PWD

nodejs install gives you npm as well :

ls -la ${parent_dir}/nodejs/bin