How do I update Node.js?

To upgrade Node you may first want to see which version of Node.js you are currently using:

node --version 

Find out which versions of Node.js you may have installed and which one of those you're currently using:

nvm ls 

List all versions of Node.js available for installation:

nvm ls-remote 

Apparently for Windows the command would be rather like this:

nvm ls available 

Assuming you would pick Node.js v8.1.0 for installation you'd type the following to install that version:

nvm install 8.1.0 

You are then free to choose between installed versions of Node.js. So if you would need to use an older version like v4.2.0 you would set it as the active version like this:

nvm use 4.2 

That should be all.

In 2013 I used the following instructions to upgrade from Node.js version 0.10.6 to 0.10.21 on a Mac, for more recent instructions see above.

Update from 2017: Please mind, Mr. Walsh himself recommended to update Node.js just using nvm instead.

1. Clear NPM's cache:

    sudo npm cache clean -f 

2. Install a little helper called 'n'

    sudo npm install -g n 

3. Install latest stable Node.js version

    sudo n stable 

Alternatively pick a specific version and install like this:

sudo n 0.8.20 

For production environments you might want to pay attention to version numbering and be picky about odd/even numbers.

Credits

• General procedure: D.Walsh
• Stable/unstable versions: P.Teixeira

Any OS (including Windows, Mac & Linux)

Updated October 2024

Just go to the official Node.js site (nodejs.org), download and execute the installer program.

It will take care of everything and with a few clicks of 'Next' you'll get the latest Node.js version running on your machine. Since 2020 it's the recommended way to update NodeJS. It's the easiest and least frustrating solution.

Pro tips

• NodeJS installation includes NPM (Node package manager).

• To check your NPM version use npm version or node --version.

• If you prefer CLI, to update NPM use npm install -g npm and then npm install -g node.

  • For more details, see the docs for install command.

• Keep an eye on NodeJS blog - Vulnerabilities so you don't miss important security releases. Keep your NodeJS up-to-date.

• Operating systems supported by Node.js:

  • Windows, Linux, MacOS, IBM AIX.
  • For Docker users, here's the official Node.js image.
  • For more information on installing Node.js on a variety of less-common operating systems, see this page (there's even Node for Android!).

• Troubleshooting for Windows:

  If anyone gets file error 2502/2503 like myself during install, run the .msi via Administrator command prompt with command msiexec /package [node msi]

^{If my answer is helpful, don't forget to upvote it
(here is the original answer by Anmol Saraf, upvote it too)}

If you have Homebrew installed (only for macOS):

$ brew upgrade node 

2024: Just go to nodejs.org and use the latest installer.

That's it folks. It used to be more complex and people used different kinds of packages and strategies to manage it. But things have changed for the better.

Works for all platforms (Windows, Mac & Linux).

First update npm,

npm install -g npm stable

Then update node,

npm install -g node or npm install -g n

check after version installation,

node --version or node -v

On Windows you can use Chocolatey to install and update Node.js (and lots of other packages).

Install Node

cinst nodejs.install 

Update Node

cup nodejs.install 

Note: You will need to install Chocolatey before you can use cinst and cup.

To upgrade node to the latest version or to a specific version you can do the following:

sudo npm install n -g sudo n 0.10.18 // This will give you the specific version 

For the latest stable version:

sudo n stable 

For the latest LTS version(Tested on Mac)

sudo n lts 

To control your version of Node.js, you can try n. I found it very straightforward and useful.

n is a Node.js binary management, no subshells, no profile setup, no convoluted API, just simple.

npm install -g n 

n 0.6.19 will install Node.js v0.6.19.

Short answer:

Go to this page: Download | Node.js

Download the installer for your platform, then install it.

I had the same problem, when I saw that my Node.js installation is outdated.

These few lines will handle everything (for Ubuntu):

sudo npm cache clean -f sudo npm install -g n sudo n stable 

After this node -v will return you the latest available version.

On CentOS 7 you can do the following:

sudo npm cache clean -f sudo npm install -g n sudo n stable sudo ln -sf /usr/local/n/versions/node/5.4.1/bin/node /usr/bin/node node –v (Should show updated version now) npm rebuild node-sass (Optional: if you use this) 

Note: The symlink is required to link your node binary with the latest Node.js installed binary file.

For OS X, I had v5.4.1 and needed the latest version 6 so I went to the Node.js homepage and clicked on one of the links below:

I then followed the installer and then I magically had the latest version of Node.js and npm.

You may use nvm.

1. Check what is the latest version at http://nodejs.org/ (e.g. v0.10.26)
2. Run nvm install v0.10.26

Done.

You can choose which version to run:

nvm ls list the available versions and tells you which version you are using now.

nvm use VERSION change the current node to the requested version.

nvm alias default VERSION set the default version. The next time you source nvm.sh, this will be the version loaded (note that it doesn't change the version in use right now, run nvm use for that).

For macOS in 2018+ (as ALL of the solutions above are failing for me):

Simply go to the official nodejs site, download the official nodejs package and install it by double clicking. It's the most simple, safe and always-working thing you can do.

Some Linux distributions such as Arch Linux have Node.js in their package repositories. On such systems it is better to use a standard package update procedure, such as pacman -Suy or analogous apt-get or yum commands.

As of now (Nov 2016) EPEL7 offers a pretty recent version of Node.js (6.9.1 which is an up-to-date LTS version offered on the Node.js home page). So on CentOS 7 and derivatives you can just add EPEL repository by yum install epel-release and yum install nodejs.

CentOS 6/EPEL6 has 0.10.x which isn't supported upstream since Oct 2016.

Today I ran on a Windows Git Bash:

$ npm i node -g 

and got the following output:

> [email protected] preinstall C:\Users\X\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node > node installArchSpecificPackage + [email protected] added 1 package and audited 1 package in 23.368s found 0 vulnerabilities C:\Users\X\AppData\Roaming\npm\node -> C:\Users\X\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node\bin\node + [email protected] added 2 packages from 1 contributor in 26.089s 

Read more about it at https://www.npmjs.com/package/node.

The easy way to update node and npm :

npm install -g npm@latest 

download the latest version of node js and update /install

For Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install -y curl curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.12 | sudo bash - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs 

Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/426750/how-can-i-update-my-nodejs-to-the-latest-version

$ npm install -g npm stable 

worked for me to update npm

• Install nvm(cURL)

  $ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.31.1/install.sh | bash

  OR with Wget

  $ wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.1/install.sh | bash

• Display list of installed versions

  $ nvm ls

• Display list of versions that are available to install

  $ nvm ls-remote

• Install your preferred version

  $ nvm install v7.5.0

• Set this version as the default

  $ nvm alias default v7.5.0

You may use Chocolatey on Windows. It's very easy to use and useful for keeping you updated with other applications too.

Also, you can just simply download the latest version from https://nodejs.org and install it.

According to Nodejs Official Page, you can install&update new node version on windows using Chocolatey or Scoop

Using(Chocolatey):

cinst nodejs # or for full install with npm cinst nodejs.install 

Using(Scoop):

scoop install nodejs 

Also you can download the Windows Installer directly from the nodejs.org web site

As some of you already said, the easiest way is to update Node.js through the Node.js package manager, npm. If you are a Linux (Debian-based in my case) user I would suggest to add these lines to your .bashrc file (in home directory):

function nodejsupdate() { ARGC=$# version=latest if [ $ARGC != 0 ]; then version=$1 fi sudo npm cache clean -f sudo npm install -g n sudo n $version } 

Restart your terminal after saving and write nodejsupdate to update to the latest version of Node.js or nodejsupdate v6.0.0 (for example) to update to a specific version of Node.js.

BONUS: Update npm (add these lines to .bashrc)

function npmupdate() { sudo npm i npm -g } 

After restarting the terminal write npmupdate to update your node package manager to the latest version.

Now you can update Node.js and npm through your terminal (easier).

In windows download the node executable file from the website and install it. this worked for me.

All you need to version update of Node.js:

$ brew install node 

If you don't have Homebrew; please go http://brew.sh/.

Just install the new version over the current folder. I upgraded mine from v4.x to v6.10 on Windows.