How to install Node.js
So many tutorials start with npm install
, but how do you go about actually installing this npm
? I have to look it up fairly regularly, so here are my notes.
Node and Homebrew are apps #
Homebrew and Node are both installed globally for your user on your computer. Consider them software on your computer in a similar way to Word or Photoshop, tools to create things.
Homebrew #
Annoyingly, I'll start with installing something else before installing Node. Welcome to the world of package managers. There's always another thing to install before the thing you came to install :/
And this time that other thing is "Homebrew". Shortly explained, it helps us installing other things in the Terminal. To install we need this snippet from it's website:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
It asks for your password to be allowed to create a bunch of new files and folders on your computer.
Check if Homebrew is installed #
brew --version
If Homebrew is installed, it should return Homebrew 2.2.4
. (That's the current version number, it will most likely have changed when you read this)
Install Node and NPM #
We can now use the new brew
command to install node:
brew install node
It takes a while to download and install.
Check if Node is installed #
We can check if Node is installed the same way we checked if Homebrew was installed. By adding the --version
attribute to the end of the command.
node --version
node -v // This returns the same result
Today, that command returns v10.13.0
Check if NPM is installed #
npm -v
And today, this returns 6.13.6
.
Node vs NPM?! #
- Node makes it possible to build JavaScript applications on a server.
- NPM (Node Package Manager) helps us installing and managing our Node based applications.
- NPM helps us by providing a CLI (Command Line Interface). Which means we can type
node
ornpm
+some special command
.
- NPM helps us by providing a CLI (Command Line Interface). Which means we can type