Nvm: Allow installation of unreleased node versions?

[reqshark]

what about giving nvm some sort of experimental pre-tag version installation ability?

for example, I know the branch hasn't been tagged yet for release but maybe we could add a step to compile and install like a 0.12.pre off github or something? maybe 0.12.pre-tag?

[ljharb]

That's a lot of added complexity, since nvm only installs off of nodejs.org. I think that unreleased versions are complex enough that they should be managed manually - it probably shouldn't be this easy to install 0.12 before it's ready :-)

[reqshark]

Certainly added complexity, but mainly just because it would need to cater to different OS's trying to use pre. Here's my current understanding:

Cost

1. compile issues to sort out across various OS's. figuring out how to pull down node master (or close to it) and running a compile configured against the ~/.nvm/v0.xx.pre directory.
2. Easy access to try out features in development, thus a wider audience unaware of node internals submit non-issues to core.

Benefit

1. Easy access to try out features in development. Access to potentially higher performance versions of node but mostly immediate access to a strengthened API.
2. Why making it this easy is both a cost and a benefit: broader scope of developer exposure to ongoing areas of core development could help make it easier to confirm use feasibility/stability.

[creationix]

Is not the latest 0.11.x release recent enough? I doubt there is much difference between the latest unstable release and master on github. If you're working that close to master, you probably want a working checkout and aren't using nvm.

[reqshark]

@creationix that's true.

And to your first point, definitely---most of node's github history has shown little difference there. For me, the motive here is less about 0.11.x and strictly a personal fantasy of going nvm i 0.12.pre to checkout branch 0.12 for use right now.

[ljharb]

There's enough complexity with the released versions of node, and soon io.js, that I think for the time being, unreleased versions will need to be installed from source.

[gajus]

@ljharb given that io.js is out, would it make sense to reconsider this?

[ljharb]

I'd definitely like to support very-opt-in installation of release candidates - and then nightlies. However, this would primarily be useful for the node core team, and nobody else should really be doing it.

[NuSkooler]

I'd definitely like to support very-opt-in installation of release candidates - and then nightlies. However, this would primarily be useful for the node core team, and nobody else should really be doing it.

I was asked just today by the Node team to try a nightly, which is how I found this bug ("Hey, I wonder if I can do this with nvm?"). I'm not a Node.js core team dev :)

[ljharb]

@NuSkooler in that case you have the precise use case for why I eventually want to support nightlies :-)

The order things need to happen is:
1) support installing io.js from source (done except travis tests time out)
2) support installing node >= 4 from source (easy after 1)
3) support installing io.js rc's (almost done, but blocked by 1 and 2)
4) support installing node >= 4 rc's (easy after 3)
5) support installing nightlies of node >= 4 (blocked by 1-4)

[NuSkooler]

@ljharb Sounds great. I just happened to fall into this situation over the last couple days so thought I'd chime in.

[valeriangalliat]

Looks like there's binary distributions of nightly builds: https://nodejs.org/download/nightly

So I was able to install latest v6 nightly with nvm with the following command:

NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR=https://nodejs.org/download/nightly nvm install 6

[ljharb]

@valeriangalliat sure, that should work just fine right up until actual v6 comes out :-)

[puncha]

It doesn't seem to work in Windows 7. Any workarounds?

[ljharb]

@puncha nvm should work on BashOnWindows. Otherwise, it currently does not support Windows at all - the readme lists windows alternatives.

[puncha]

@ljharb Oh, I forgot I'm using the nvm-windows which is a different repo. Thanks.

[Juriy]

Hello guys, I tried to use the same trick with Node v8, and it didn't work (log output below). I think that NVM is trying to download the wrong file. Is there a way to point NVM to exact version that it should download and install?

NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR=https://nodejs.org/download/nightly nvm install 8
Downloading https://nodejs.org/download/nightly/v8.0.0/node-v8.0.0-darwin-x64.tar.gz...
######################################################################## 100.0%
WARNING: checksums are currently disabled for node.js v4.0 and later
tar: Unrecognized archive format
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
Binary download failed, trying source.
######################################################################## 100.0%
Checksums empty
tar: Unrecognized archive format
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
Binary download failed, trying source.
Installing node v1.0 and greater from source is not currently supported