(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)
System requirements
Node runs on POSIX-like operating systems, the various UNIX derivatives (Solaris, and so on), or workalikes (Linux, Mac OS X, and so on), as well as on Microsoft Windows, thanks to the extensive assistance from Microsoft. Indeed, many of the Node built-in functions are direct corollaries to POSIX system calls. It can run on machines both large and small, including the tiny ARM devices such as the Raspberry Pi microscale embeddable computer for DIY software/hardware projects.
Node is now available via package management systems, limiting the need to compile and install from source.
Installing from source requires having a C compiler (such as GCC), and Python 2.7 (or later). If you plan to use encryption in your networking code you will also need the OpenSSL cryptographic library. The modern UNIX derivatives almost certainly come with these, and Node’s configure script (see later when we download and configure the source) will detect their presence. If you should have to install them, Python is available at http://python.org and OpenSSL is available at http://openssl.org.
Installing Node using package managers
The preferred method for installing Node, now, is to use the versions available in package managers such as apt-get, or MacPorts. Package managers simplify your life by helping to maintain the current version of the software on your computer and ensuring to update dependent packages as necessary, all by typing a simple command such as apt-get update. Let’s go over this first.
Installing on Mac OS X with MacPorts
The MacPorts project (http://www.macports.org/) has for years been packaging a long list of open source software packages for Mac OS X, and they have packaged Node. After you have installed MacPorts using the installer on their website, installing Node is pretty much this simple:
$ sudo port search nodejs nodejs @0.10.6 (devel, net) Evented I/O for V8 JavaScript nodejs-devel @0.11.2 (devel, net) Evented I/O for V8 JavaScript Found 2 ports. -- npm @1.2.21 (devel) node package manager $ sudo port install nodejs npm .. long log of downloading and installing prerequisites and Node
Installing on Mac OS X with Homebrew
Homebrew is another open source software package manager for Mac OS X, which some say is the perfect replacement for MacPorts. It is available through their home page at http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/. After installing Homebrew using the instructions on their website, using it to install Node is as simple as this:
$ brew search node leafnode node $ brew install node ==> Downloading http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.7/node-v0.10.7.tar.gz ##################################
###################################### 100.0% ==> ./configure –prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.7 ==> make install ==> Caveats Homebrew installed npm. We recommend prepending the following path to your PATH environment variable to have npm-installed binaries picked up: /usr/local/share/npm/bin ==> Summary /usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.7: 870 files, 16M, built in 21.9 minutes
Installing on Linux from package management systems
While it’s still premature for Linux distributions or other operating systems to prepackage Node with their OS, that doesn’t mean you cannot install it using the package managers. Instructions on the Node wiki currently list packaged versions of Node for Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and Arch Linux.
See: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installing-Node.js-via-package-manager
For example, on Debian sid (unstable):
# apt-get update # apt-get install nodejs # Documentation is great.
And on Ubuntu:
# sudo apt-get install python-software-properties # sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js # sudo apt-get update # sudo apt-get install nodejs npm
We can expect in due course that the Linux distros and other operating systems will routinely bundle Node into the OS like they do with other languages today.
Installing the Node distribution from nodejs.org
The nodejs.org website offers prebuilt binaries for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris. You simply go to the website, click on the Install button, and run the installer. For systems with package managers, such as the ones we’ve just discussed, it’s preferable to use that installation method. That’s because you’ll find it easier to stay up-to-date with the latest version. However, on Windows this method may be preferred.
For Mac OS X, the installer is a PKG file giving the typical installation process. For Windows, the installer simply takes you through the typical install wizard process.
Once finished with the installer, you have a command line tool with which to run Node programs.
The pre-packaged installers are the simplest ways to install Node, for those systems for which they’re available.
Installing Node on Windows using Chocolatey Gallery
Chocolatey Gallery is a package management system, built on top of NuGet. Using it requires a Windows machine modern enough to support the Powershell and the .NET Framework 4.0. Once you have Chocolatey Gallery (http://chocolatey.org/), installing Node is as simple as this:
C:> cinst install nodejs
Installing the StrongLoop Node distribution
StrongLoop (http://strongloop.com) has put together a supported version of Node that is prepackaged with several useful tools. This is a Node distribution in the same sense in which Fedora or Ubuntu are Linux distributions. StrongLoop brings together several useful packages, some of which were written by StrongLoop. StrongLoop tests the packages together, and distributes installable bundles through their website.
The packages in the distribution include Express, Passport, Mongoose, Socket.IO, Engine.IO, Async, and Request. We will use all of those modules in this book.
To install, navigate to the company home page and click on the Products link. They offer downloads of precompiled packages for both RPM and Debian Linux systems, as well as Mac OS X and Windows. Simply download the appropriate bundle for your system.
For the RPM bundle, type the following:
$ sudo rpm -i bundle-file-name
For the Debian bundle, type the following:
$ sudo dpkg -i bundle-file-name
The Windows or Mac bundles are the usual sort of installable packages for each system. Simply double-click on the installer bundle, and follow the instructions in the install wizard.
Once StrongLoop Node is installed, it provides not only the nodeand npmcommands (we’ll go over these in a few pages), but also the slnodecommand. That command offers a superset of the npmcommands, such as boilerplate code for modules, web applications, or command-line applications.
Installing from source on POSIX-like systems
Installing the pre-packaged Node distributions is currently the preferred installation method. However, installing Node from source is desirable in a few situations:
- It could let you optimize the compiler settings as desired
- It could let you cross-compile, say for an embedded ARM system
- You might need to keep multiple Node builds for testing
- You might be working on Node itself
Now that you have the high-level view, let’s get our hands dirty mucking around in some build scripts. The general process follows the usual configure, make, and makeinstallroutine that you may already have performed with other open source software packages. If not, don’t worry, we’ll guide you through the process.
The official installation instructions are in the Node wiki at https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installation.
Installing prerequisites
As noted a minute ago, there are three prerequisites, a C compiler, Python, and the OpenSSL libraries. The Node installation process checks for their presence and will fail if the C compiler or Python is not present. The specific method of installing these is dependent on your operating system.
These commands will check for their presence:
$ cc --version i686-apple-darwin10-gcc-4.2.1 (GCC) 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3) Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. $ python Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Feb 15 2011, 01:35:25) [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5664)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>>
Installing developer tools on Mac OS X
The developer tools (such as GCC) are an optional installation on Mac OS X. There are two ways to get those tools, both of which are free. On the OS X installation DVD is a directory labeled Optional Installs, in which there is a package installer for—among other things—the developer tools, including Xcode.
The other method is to download the latest copy of Xcode (for free) from http://developer.apple.com/xcode/.
Most other POSIX-like systems, such as Linux, include a C compiler with the base system.
Installing from source for all POSIX-like systems
First, download the source from http://nodejs.org/download. One way to do this is with your browser, and another way is as follows:
$ mkdir src $ cd src $ wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.7/node-v0.10.7.tar.gz $ tar xvfz node-v0.10.7.tar.gz $ cd node-v0.10.7
The next step is to configure the source so that it can be built. It is done with the typical sort of configure script and you can see its long list of options by running the following:
$ ./configure –help.
To cause the installation to land in your home directory, run it this way:
$ ./configure –prefix=$HOME/node/0.10.7 ..output from configure
If you want to install Node in a system-wide directory simply leave off the -prefixoption, and it will default to installing in /usr/local.
After a moment it’ll stop and more likely configure the source tree for installation in your chosen directory. If this doesn’t succeed it will print a message about something that needs to be fixed. Once the configure script is satisfied, you can go on to the next step.
With the configure script satisfied, compile the software:
$ make .. a long log of compiler output is printed $ make install
If you are installing into a system-wide directory do the last step this way instead:
$ make $ sudo make install
Once installed you should make sure to add the installation directory to your PATHvariable as follows:
$ echo 'export PATH=$HOME/node/0.10.7/bin:${PATH}' >>~/.bashrc $ . ~/.bashrc
For cshusers, use this syntax to make an exported environment variable:
$ echo 'setenv PATH $HOME/node/0.10.7/bin:${PATH}' >>~/.cshrc $ source ~/.cshrc
This should result in some directories like this:
$ ls ~/node/0.10.7/ bin include lib share $ ls ~/node/0.10.7/bin node node-waf npm
Maintaining multiple Node installs simultaneously
Normally you won’t have multiple versions of Node installed, and doing so adds complexity to your system. But if you are hacking on Node itself, or are testing against different Node releases, or any of several similar situations, you may want to have multiple Node installations. The method to do so is a simple variation on what we’ve already discussed.
If you noticed during the instructions discussed earlier, the –prefixoption was used in a way that directly supports installing several Node versions side-by-side in the same directory:
$ ./configure –prefix=$HOME/node/0.10.7
And:
$ ./configure –prefix=/usr/local/node/0.10.7
This initial step determines the install directory. Clearly when Version 0.10.7, Version 0.12.15, or whichever version is released, you can change the install prefix to have the new version installed side-by-side with the previous versions.
To switch between Node versions is simply a matter of changing the PATHvariable (on POSIX systems), as follows:
$ export PATH=/usr/local/node/0.10.7/bin:${PATH}
It starts to be a little tedious to maintain this after a while. For each release, you have to set up Node, npm, and any third-party modules you desire in your Node install; also the command shown to change your PATHis not quite optimal. Inventive programmers have created several version managers to make this easier by automatically setting up not only Node, but npmalso, and providing commands to change your PATHthe smart way:
- Node version manager: https://github.com/visionmedia/n
- Nodefront, aids in rapid frontend development: http://karthikv.github.io/nodefront/
