How to Use Node.js and NPM on Hypernode

This article explains how to use and install other versions of Node.js and also how to install NPM packages on Hypernode.

Using the Installed Version of Node.js

If you use the installed version, you can just start using node and npm.

Upgrading and downgrading Node.js

By default, the installed NodeJS version on our Hypernode platform is v10. You can check this on your Hypernode by running the command node -v. If you need to manually upgrade an app to another Node.js version like 18, you can use the command below:

hypernode-systemctl settings nodejs_version 18

Supported Node.js versions are: 6, 10, 16 and 18.

Setting your PATH

If you want to execute the tools that you installed using npm, you should make sure these executables can be located by the shell. This can be easily done this by adjusting your PATH setting.

This PATH variable is used by the Bash shell to locate binaries and scripts. You can adjust it by exporting the PATH variable:

export PATH="/data/web/node_modules/.bin:$PATH"

If you want this setting to be configured every time you log in to your Hypernode, you can add this setting to your ~/.profile, this file is loaded every time a new shell is spawned.

To configure your PATH variable at login time, run the following command:

echo 'export PATH="/data/web/node_modules/.bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.profile

Now every time you log in, the Bash shell is configured to look for tools in /data/web/node_modules/.bin and /data/web/.node/bin.

Installing Packages

Let’s install some packages.

When your PATH is set up correctly, after the installation with npm install, you should immediately be able to use the newly installed tool.

To find the latest command line tool installed, run:

ls -ltr /data/web/node_modules/.bin | tail -1

Install Gulp

npm install gulp gulp-cli

Install Grunt

npm install grunt grunt-cli

Install Sass

npm install sass

Next you need to set the correct path so you don’t have to type the absolute path to access compass each time. You can do s with the command:

export PATH="/data/web/.gem/ruby/2.5.0/gems/compass-1.0.3/bin:$PATH"

Install Less

npm install less

Install Yarn

npm install yarn

Using an unsupported Node.js version

If you want to use a more recent version, it is very easy to install the latest version of Node.js yourself.

NodeJs offers precompiled packages on their website that are ready to use on your Hypernode. All we need to do is download and unpack them to make use of node and npm and install your own node modules.

In this example we use version v14.17.6 but the installation process is the same when using older or newer versions.

First, create the directory where we will unpack Node.js:
```
mkdir /data/web/.node
```

Then, get the precompiled package from the Node.js website and unpack it in our directory:

wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v14.17.6/node-v14.17.6-linux-x64.tar.xz -O /tmp/node.txz
tar xvfJ /tmp/node.txz -C ~/.node --strip-components=1
rm /tmp/node.txz

To be able to run this manually installed version when you run node, you need to add ~/.node/bin to your PATH variable, so that your shell knows where it should look when you type node.

To do this, run the following commands to add the locations to your PATH variable:

export PATH="/data/web/.node/bin:$PATH"
echo 'export PATH="/data/web/.node/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.profile

Both the installations (the already installed or the precompiled self-downloaded version) use /data/web/node_modules as their location to install new packages to when using npm.

Troubleshooting

When using npm search, so much memory is used that on smaller Hypernode plans, your shell will get killed, and you’ll be automagically logged out of your Hypernode due to our out of memory protection.