How to install Node.js docs for mentors

[mikeal]

We need to create a comprehensive guide to installing node along with all the crazy things you'll have to fix across different operating systems and install methods.

In Berlin, ever person on Mac and Linux had to get a permission fix in order to npm install anything.

Also, and I'm going to loop in @othiym23 and @zeke on this one, when NPM gets that dreadful "EACCESS" error it should come with some text about how to clean up the permissions in order to fix it :)

It might also be good to let the nodeforward/welcome people know about this as they'll probably want to link to it.

[zeke]

Hear hear.

[zeke]

I've always advised people to "go to nodejs.org and download the package installer". This means you probably have to use your mouse a little bit, but I find it to be the most accommodating path and it doesn't require sudo.

When it comes time to update npm independently of node, I don't know what to do. npm update -g npm scares me, but maybe that's the official way now? I'll defer to others for better answers..

[linclark]

I just worked on some docs for npm. To my knowledge the official way is

sudo npm install npm -g

The change from recommending update to install was made in npm/npm@8fe008181665519c2ac201ee432a3ece9798c31f

[mikeal]

The reality of installation is that people use which ever method they are used to, and for many people on Mac that is homebrew and not the "official" binary package.

Did not know that sudo npm install npm -g would fix it, we were doing chown 'whoami' -R /usr/local

[max-mapper]

I strongly recommend that we very strongly recommend to use the installers from nodejs.org in all nodeschool workshops, and clearly on the nodeschool webpage, basically everywhere.

We also need a page on the nodeschool website, or even just a markdown file in a repo that is linked form the website, that has super user friendly installation instructions for all platforms. I outlined the idea here: https://github.com/nodeschool/discussions/issues/530#issuecomment-55026334 but it would be awesome if someone did this

[rvagg]

FYI Linux is getting easier, we're about to announce support for all kinds of rpm-based distributions on top of our deb-based distribution binaries now, docs are expanding at https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installing-Node.js-via-package-manager

Of course this isn't particularly helpful for the common cases but if you ever have people on Linux with trouble then you can point them to https://github.com/nodesource/distributions for support (this is linked on the above wiki page)

[greelgorke]

just a question: why we don't recommend to use a tool like nvm or nave? i find it very helpful to use nave (nothing for win ppl though)

[othiym23]

Homebrew mostly works now; I worked with them to get them to change the npm install command to npm -g install npm@latest (which is a little overdetermined, but is the safest way to get from any npm version to the latest version, if it's even possible).

I've been thinking about writing a specific, concise guide for getting started with npm on Windows. Until I have the time to write that (ha ha ha sob), there's also the npm troubleshooting guide.

[othiym23]

@rvagg Fix OpenSUSE's npm packaging and you will have my undying devotion. See npm/npm#6265 for details.

[othiym23]

I strongly recommend that we very strongly recommend to use the installers from nodejs.org in all nodeschool workshops, and clearly on the nodeschool webpage, basically everywhere.

I second this endorsement; to speak to @greelgorke's question, the problem with nvm and nave is that they're another step to get people up and running. Also, while there are nvm-like things for Windows, almost all of the Windows-based tooling that's not rooted in MSYS / mingw ends up using the official MSI anyway, and it has issues right now (mostly with Windows 7; see the Windows bits in the troubleshooting guide I linked to above). Based on my experience at NodeConf 2014, we have a long ways to go to make it easy for Windows users (and there are lot of them) up and running with NodeSchool stuff.

[iancrowther]

I always recommend Node installer for beginners and nvm for advanced.

[greelgorke]

in Hamburg we made good experience with cloud9 ide for beginners

[riyadhalnur]

I would recommend using nvm on OSX and Linux. Easiest way to maintain multiple versions of Node and easy to get started with. Also that way the experience stays the same across both platforms.

[martinheidegger]

Plenty of docs in https://github.com/nodeschool/discussions by now, closing this issue.