1910

I have installed nvm (ubuntu with zsh shell) with two node version: v6.11.5 and v9.0.0 and the default version in nvm is the v9.0.0

Every time I need to change the node version

$ nvm list
         v6.11.5
->       v9.0.0
         system
default -> node (-> v9.0.0)
node -> stable (-> v9.0.0) (default)
stable -> 9.0 (-> v9.0.0) (default)


$ nvm v6

How could I change the nvm version default to define v6.11.5?

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1
  • 3
    for M1 mac nvm alias default xxx works but not nvm use default xxx Commented Jul 12, 2024 at 5:04

29 Answers 29

Reset to default
3774

(nvm maintainer here)

nvm alias default 6.11.5 if you want it pegged to that specific version.

You can also do nvm alias default 16 or nvm alias default node.

Either way, you'll want to upgrade to the latest version of nvm (v0.39.2 as of this writing)

# nvm set default node.js version 16.14.2
$ nvm alias default 16.14.2
$ nvm use

$ node -v
# v16.14.2
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18 Comments

Use nvm alias default node to make the "latest" the default.
Doing nvm alias default doesn't do anything. The tag "default" changes, but a new shell is still using the not-desired-version. I found that uninstalling not needed versions works.
I was using vs-code and it did not work initially, but when I restarted the vs-Code it worked.
nvm alias default node to use the latest version of Node installed on your computer. Remember to use nvm use node (or whatever Node version you want to use) after the first command to actually change the version. My example (I was using version 13 as default, but having 15 on machine and wanting to set default to latest version of Node): nvm alias default node nvm use node was like using (in my case): nvm alias default 15 nvm use 15
Might want to just use the latest long-term stable release. nvm alias default lts/*
For paranoid double-checking: I always open a new terminal windows/tab thereaftert, and truly verify with nvm list (looking at both --> (current version) and default --> (default version indeed) as well as node -v of course.
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229

Lets say to want to make default version as 10.19.0.

nvm alias default v10.19.0

But it will give following error

! WARNING: Version 'v10.19.0' does not exist.
default -> v10.19.0 (-> N/A)

In That case you need to run two commands in the following order

# Install the version that you would like 
nvm install 10.19.0

# Set 10.19.0 (or another version) as default
nvm alias default 10.19.0
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3 Comments

nvm alias default 10.19.0 Without "v"
it works both with or without the v.
don't forget to nvm use default as @alltozall20381 mentioned below or start a new shell.
216

This will set the default to be the most current version of node

nvm alias default node

and then you'll need to run

nvm use default

or exit and open a new tab

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7 Comments

Asked for node 6, your solution will choose the last node stable version to use. So it will not use specific 6 version
Even though this is pretty useful, this doesn't answer the question at all.
This gave me a message "Your user’s .npmrc file (${HOME}/.npmrc) has a globalconfig and/or a prefix setting, which are incompatible with nvm. Run nvm use --delete-prefix v15.13.0 to unset it." I ended up running the suggested command and it worked.
Yours is the first answer that tells me to run nvm use default which is what I was missing.
This works for me, but only in the same shell. When I open a new one node -v still prints the previous version...
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99

If you just want a major version as default this works:

% nvm alias default 20

To check your current default:

% nvm alias default
default -> 20 (-> v20.13.1)

Restart terminal to apply.

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80

If you want to switch only for once use this

nvm use 12.x

Else if you want to switch the default node version then use

nvm use default 12.x

or

nvm alias default 12.x
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79

I was trying to change the default version from a VSCode terminal on a Mac. Didnt work. I had to run this from the default system terminal.

nvm alias default v16.16.0

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2 Comments

Just to clarify, you can also do "nvm alias default v16" and it'll stick to the v16 major version.
After running above command in macos terminal, had to restart my Vscode to see the changes applied in Vscode terminal.
58

For those testing this in VSCode terminal and still seeing the old version even after killing/restarting terminal -- VS code caches the old version. Close/reopen your VSCode window and you should see the correct version with node -v.

Edit: I got curious about why this is case -- the vscode process provides new shells with the $PATH variable it received when it was started. Because nvm works by updating your $PATH, new shells in vscode do not reflect those changes, and a full restart is required

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1 Comment

Thanks. This solved for me. I was trying to use the Reload Window command from the command palette, but it didn't work. I had to fully close VS Code and open it again.
53

This is what works for me.

nvm use default v16

This did not do anything for me

nvm alias default v16
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1 Comment

Notice that the v in v16 matters. Without that it didn't work for me (even though it does when I use nvm use 16).
34

You can also like this:

$ nvm alias default lts/fermium
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4 Comments

Is there any way to target the latest version ? e.g. nvm alias default lts/latest ?
Try with nvm alias default lts/*
Note you will need to install lts/fermium first. Plus I find nvm alias default lts/* returns WARNING: Version 'lts/*' does not exist.
That format isn't supported by some shells. You can wrap in single quotes to get by this, e.g. nvm alias default 'lts/*'
27

If you want all projects and terminals to use the same Node.js version globally, nvm makes it simple to set a default version. Here's how:

1. Install the Latest Version (If Not Already Installed)

Install the latest stable version of Node.js using nvm:

nvm install node
or
nvm install [<version>]

2. Set the Global Default Version

Run the following command to set the latest version as the global default for all environments:

nvm alias default node
or
nvm alias default 23

3. Verify the Global Default

Close and reopen your terminal, then check the version to confirm:

node -v

This will show the default version being used across all sessions.

Why This Works:

By setting a default version with nvm alias default, every time you open a terminal, nvm will automatically load the specified version as the global default for all projects and scripts. You don’t need to manually switch versions anymore unless you explicitly want to.

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24

Alert: This answer is for MacOS only

Let suppose you have 2 versions of nodeJS inside your nvm, namely v13.10.1 & v15.4.0

And, v15.4.0 is default

> nvm list
       v13.10.1
->      v15.4.0
         system
default -> 15.4.0 (-> v15.4.0)

And, you want to switch the default to v13.10.1

Follow these steps on your Mac terminal:

  1. Run the command:

    nvm alias default 13.10.1

This will make the default point to v13.10.1 as...

default -> 13.10.1 (-> v13.10.1)
  1. Open new instance of terminal. Now check the node version here as...

node -v

You will get...

v13.10.1

  1. nvm list will also show the new default version.

    nvm list

Just an info: The NodeJS versions taken as example above will have their different npm versions. You can cross-verify it in terminal by running npm -v

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2 Comments

Excellent step by step, thank you. Works on ubuntu 20.04
++ In fact, this answer would work totally well for Linux and Windows systems too. On Windows, the user may do these steps via Git bash
24

enter image description here

If your node version (node -v) is => 16.17.0, then run nvm alias default 20.9.0 to have node -v => 20.9.0

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1 Comment

I find your post so hard to read that I am not even sure whether you actually meant to answer (according to How to Answer). If so, please edit to make it more obvious. Otherwise please delete this.
22

In Nutshell steps to use NVM

For Mac

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
nvm install 16
nvm use 16
nvm alias default 16
npm install npm --global # Upgrade npm to the latest version

For Linux

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install nodejs

For Windows

Git's installer for Windows from below link

https://git-scm.com/download/win

node-v16.XX.XX-x64.msi from below link

https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v16.x/
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Comments

19

I did something like that after running a nvm install --lts:

nvm alias default 'lts/*'
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1 Comment

Good answer! nvm install --lts && nvm alias default lts/*
18

I tried the most-upvoted answer and didn’t work for me. The problem was that I had another node installed by brew which NVM recognizes as system-node. NVM prioritizes system-node over default alias. All I had to was to uninstall the system-node (brew uninstall node).

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1 Comment

Same for me on WSL. I didn't have brew so I used ´sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove nodejs´
13

Since there are a lot of answers above that talk about the default alias, and someone still can't get the right version in new terminal, my answer is here.

while you add source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh in your shell rc file(like ~/.bashrc), it will first check whether there is a nvm-version node path in the $PATH environment variable, like /usr/local/nvm/versions/node/v14.1.0/bin. If there is one, nvm will not use default alias.

So firstly you should check why there is node path in $PATH. If you could get the reason(like run nvm use 16 explicitly in another rc file or script file), just remove it.

If you can't get reason or just wanna keep it, then another solution is:

# that's your previous usage, keep it
source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh

# FORCE to use default alias
nvm use default

# or if you prefer to forcedly use .nvmrc prior to default, then
test -f .nvmrc && nvm use || nvm use default
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11

First check available versions

nvm list

Then set default version using

nvm alias default lts/**

enter image description here

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7

The current answers did not solve the problem for me, because I had node installed in /usr/bin/node and /usr/local/bin/node - so the system always resolved these first, and ignored the nvm version.

I solved the issue by moving the existing versions to /usr/bin/node-system and /usr/local/bin/node-system

Then I had no node command anymore, until I used nvm use :(

I solved this issue by creating a symlink to the version that would be installed by nvm.

sudo mv /usr/local/bin/node /usr/local/bin/node-system    
sudo mv /usr/bin/node /usr/bin/node-system 
nvm use node
  Now using node v12.20.1 (npm v6.14.10)
which node
  /home/paul/.nvm/versions/node/v12.20.1/bin/node
sudo ln -s /home/paul/.nvm/versions/node/v12.20.1/bin/node /usr/bin/node

Then open a new shell

node -v
  v12.20.1
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Comments

7

nvm alias default 16 (where "16" is the version you want to use) but if you're install node from https://nodejs.org/en/download/ before I would suggest you remove it first. For m1 or m1 pro chips, I suggest you follow this solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fULL8QiPEU4

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6

I solved this issue with the next command:

nvm use set as default xx.xx.x

enter image description here

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Comments

6

Use this command to set a default Node.js version. For example, to set version 16 as the default, use: nvm alias default 16. You can replace 16 with any other version, such as 18, 20, or 22, depending on your needs.

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5

Change the default version to use the latest LTS version nvm alias default lts/*

You manually upgrade the global version by doing nvm install lts/* --reinstall-packages-from=lts/* or a weekly cron job if you want to keep your version up to date

The --reinstall-packages-from=lts/* is there to reinstall the global packages you had everytime you change versions

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3

Whatever I tried, it did not use the version I specified, and running nvm current returned system.

What fixed it was moving the following line to the end of my .zshrc:

source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

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3

I had set the default version to use with nvm alias default <version> but a new shell still didn't point to the version of node I wanted.

It turns out that:

  • nvm manipulates $PATH to set the version to use.
  • The .bash_profile set by the admin reset $PATH to a fixed list of directories rather than adding to the existing.
  • As this happened after .bashrc and thus nvm were run, nvm correctly picked my default, but the $PATH was then reset.

Two possible solutions:

  • Fix the $PATH manipulation so that it doesn't clobber the existing $PATH
  • Or run nvm use default at the end of .bash_profile, after the $PATH manipulation, so that nvm can re-add the path to the correct version to $PATH
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1 Comment

I ran into this today on linux. When I run nvm alias default, the correct version is shown. but node -v shows a version I previously installed. This seems like a dirty workaround, but I don't have much choice.
2

change the default node version with nvm alias default 10.15.3 *

(replace mine version with your default version number)

you can check your default lists with nvm list

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1

FYI looks like tmux caches the old version also (like mentioned with VSCode above). restarting tmux then uses the new version for each window.

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1 Comment

That was it! I had new version of node only in first pane, when I opened new one I got the old version. tmux kill-server helped.
1

For me the issue was, my nvm was not set every time I open a new terminal. Once I got rid of this issue, default node version was also being set fine.

After the nvm was intializing on startup of new terminal, the node version was being initialized to the default set via nvm.Here

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1

In my situation of Windows 11, nvm 1.1.9 and using gitbash

These work for me (have to run as administrator)

[lastest version]

nvm use latest

[specific version]

nvm use 18.10.0

These didn't work for me

nvm use 18 -> return node vv18.10.0 (64-bit) is not installed or cannot be found.

nvm use default 18 -> return Unrecognized version: "default"

nvm alias ... -> seems alias command is not supported in this nvm version

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-6

While NVM has its uses, I encourage you to consider an alternate option.

You can pin you project to a particular version of Node.js using the node package on Npm!

cd oldProject

npm i [email protected]

cd ../newProject

npm i [email protected]

Next time Npm runs node, it will use that version!

The node package accomplishes this by downloading the specified version of Node.js to node_modules/.bin/node. You you can run it directly, but it is easier to let Npm run it.

Any package.json#scripts will automatically use the specified version of node since node_modules/.bin is added to the path by Npm.

No more remembering which version of Node this package uses. No need to run anything new - just make sure npm i has been run.

{
  "scripts": {
    "node-version": "node --version"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "node": "9.0.0"
  }
}

Note, you will need to npm install once before the correct node is used:

node --version
# v18.12.0
npm run node-version
# v18.12.0
npm install
npm run node-version
# v9.0.0
node --version
# v18.12.0
node_modules/.bin/node --version
# v9.0.0
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