How I just upgraded my node 4.2.4 and why?
I just upgraded my Node from 4.2.1 to 4.2.4 and I saw there are two points in this process which are worth sharing. First why I upgraded to 4.2.4 and not v5.0 and second which sounds funny to me that on my local machine I use nvm but in my production servers I still use n because it sounds more reliable. Please correct me if you think I am mistaken about that.
##Why 4.2.4 and not 5.x? I listen to a Node.js podcast called NodeUP which is highly recommended. In its latest episode (96 - A Node v5.0 Show) one of the panelists asks Rod Vagg and Rebecca Turner both from the main npm and node team: > Should I be running or Node v5.0 or should I be running LTS 4.2.x? How do I figure that out?
and both had a similar response, in a nutshell:
Day to day I am using Node v5.0 but if I were deploying a server I would use the LTS(4.2.4) just because having that stability. - Rebecca
This is exactly why I upgraded to 4.2.4 instead of 5.0 but to make more sense of it you have to listen to whole answer in the podcast itself: NodeUp 96. It is awesome.
##Using NVM
Using nvm makes the whole process much easier but it also has its own issues, for instance in linux systems one of the famous issues of using nvm is the issue when using sudo to install global packages which could be fixed easily but still is an issue.
To install nvm you could follow the instruction in its Github repository, which has a install script the you could easily download using curl or wget and run with bash.
Now to upgrade or to install node using nvm all you should do is: nvm install 4.2.4 and then nvm use 4.2.4.
That is how I upgraded my node on my local machine.
##Using N
I really like nvm BUT I used n on my production servers which to me sounds more reliable and has a much easier installation process and so far I haven’t seen any of the issues I have had with nvm. That’s how I upgraded my servers:
sudo npm cache clean -f
sudo npm install -g n
sudo n 4.2.4
sudo ln -sf /usr/local/n/versions/node/4.2.4/bin/node /usr/bin/node
and it was all I should do. Of course next time I no longer need to install n itself.
##What about npm 3? Using npm 3, your dependencies will be installed flat - by default, and there is no doubt that, IMHO, it is a huge improvement. The great thing about npm that I really like is how easy I could upgrade it using its own install command:
sudo npm install -g npm
and done.
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