Install Node

This post is part of my Your own Virtual Private Server hosting solution project.
Get the latest version of this article here: https://gist.github.com/9346588.

Introduction

Node.js is a cross-platform runtime environment for server-side and networking applications.

Requirements

• Ubuntu server
• build-essential
• Git

Installation

You can install Node.js either from website or the from the git repo.

Install from source

Download Node.js with wget.

cd /usr/local/src
sudo wget http://nodejs.org/dist/node-latest.tar.gz

Unpack Node.js.

sudo tar -xzf node-latest.tar.gz
cd node-<version>

Install Node.js.

sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Check version of Node.js and npm.

node -v
npm -v

Install with Git

Clone the Node.js repo.

cd /usr/local/src
sudo git clone git://github.com/joyent/node.git

Or use the https url if ssh is not possible.

sudo git https://github.com/joyent/node.git

Check git tags to find the latest version.

cd node
git tag

See the latest stable version on http://nodejs.org/.

Checkout the latest version.

sudo git checkout vX.X.X

Install Node.js.

sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Check version of Node.js and npm.

node -v
npm -v

Update

Depending on how you’ve installed Node.js theres an update strategy.

from source

Repeat the installation process above.

with Git

Pull down the latest source code.

cd /usr/local/src/node
sudo git checkout master
sudo git pull origin master

Check git tags to find the latest version.

git tag

See the latest stable version on http://nodejs.org/.

Compile the latest version.

sudo git checkout vx.x.x
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install