How to Install Node.js on Linux, Windows, Mac OSX

If you’re looking for how to upgrade an existing Node.js installation, check out my post Upgrade Node.js Using npm and n.

 Note: As of 5/5/16, the latest LTS version is 4.x and the current version is 6.x.

If you see a version number in any of the commands listed, you will likely be able to simply change the number to the version that you would like.

Windows

Download the Windows Installer direct from the official web site.

OSX

Download the Macintosh Installer direct from the official web site.

Arch Linux

Available in the Community Repository.

pacman -S nodejs npm

Debian and Ubuntu based Linux distributions

Includes: Linux Mint, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), elementaryOS, etc.

Node.js is available from the NodeSource Debian and Ubuntu binary distributions repository (formerly Chris Lea’sLaunchpad PPA). Support for this repository, along with its scripts, can be found on GitHub atnodesource/distributions.

NOTE: If you are using older distributions based on Ubuntu Precise or Debian Wheezy, refer to running Node.js >= 4.x on older distros.

For version 4.x

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

For version 6.x:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

To compile and install native addons from npm you may also need to install build tools:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential

Enterprise Linux and Fedora

Includes: Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® / RHEL, CentOS and Fedora, etc.

For version 4.x:

curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | bash -

For version 6.x:

curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | bash -

Then, as root, install:

yum -y install nodejs

To compile and install native addons from npm you may also need to install build tools:

yum install gcc-c++ make# or: yum groupinstall 'Development Tools'

Alternatively, official Fedora Node.js and npm packages are available in Fedora 18 and later:

sudo yum install nodejs npm

Also alternatively, Enterprise Linux (RHEL and CentOS) users may use the Node.js and npm packages from the EPEL repository.

Install the appropriate epel-release RPM for your version (found on the EPEL repository homepage), then run:

sudo yum install nodejs npm --enablerepo=epel

FreeBSD and OpenBSD

Available through the ports system.

/usr/ports/www/node

Or packages on FreeBSD:

pkg_add -r node-devel

Using pkg-ng on FreeBSD

pkg install node

Gentoo

Available in the portage tree.

emerge nodejs

NetBSD

Available in the pkgsrc tree, if you want to build from source:

cd /usr/pkgsrc/lang/nodejs && make install

Alternatively, install a binary package (if available for your platform) using pkgin:

pkgin -y install nodejs

openSUSE and SLE

Download Node.js via openSUSE one-click.

SmartOS and illumos

pkgin -y install nodejs

Or build manually from pkgsrc:

cd pkgsrc/lang/nodejs && bmake install

SmartOS images come with pkgsrc pre-installed. Other illumos distributions, will require the installation of pkgsrc first if you wish to build from source.

Void Linux

Located in the main repository.

xbps-install -Sy nodejs