Nvm: `nvm use #{version} --default`

[yfeldblum]

nvm use #{version} --default should cause future shells for the same user automatically to be using node-#{version}. When using the --default option, the choice of version to use should be persistent between sessions.

This would be similar to how rvm use #{version} --default works for managing Ruby versions.

[creationix]

Neat idea, but it's fairly hard to implement. How would I store the preference?

[yfeldblum]

I'm not entirely sure how this would work. The best bet is to discover what RVM is already doing.

One possibility, though, is to store the value in a file somewhere within in ~/.nvm (for example, ~/.nvm/prefs/default). The shell script would check for this file every time it is run. If the file exists, and if its contents are exactly equal to the name of a version of Node.js that is currently installed via NVM, then the shell script would also mimic an invocation of nvm use #{version}. Since the shell script is only sourced from within ~/.bashrc, it only runs once per shell session.

[creationix]

That sounds good, I'll take a patch for it. I don't think my bash skills are up to the challenge.

[zzak]

Hello @creationix, et al,

I've started hacking on this and would appreciate a review, here's the compare

So far I've just tried implementing the ~/.nvm/prefs/default hook. I had to change how $NVM_DIR is looked up, as I wanted this to execute upon session creation; Not entirely sure this is the best way to do this.

Try it out, just create a symlink like:

ln -s ~/.nvm/v0.4.0/bin/node ~/.nvm/prefs/default

Then just add this modified version of nvm to your PATH:

. nvm.sh

Note: you will likely need to create the ~/.nvm/prefs directory first ;)

Thanks!

[creationix]

This is implemented via the new alias command.

nvm alias default v0.4.1

or if you're brave

nvm alias default stable

[zzak]

Awesome, thanks for the update Tim!