How to Install Node.js 8 on Ubuntu/Debian/Mint/ElemetaryOS
Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform Javascript run-time environment that executes Javascript code outside the browser. Historically, Javascript was used primarily for client-side scripting, in which scripts written in JavaScript are embedded in a webpage's HTML and run client-side by a JavaScript engine in the user's web browser. Nowadays, Node.js represents a "JavaScript everywhere" paradigm, unifying web application development around a single programming language, rather than different languages for server side and client side scripts.
Installation
Node.js is available from the NodeSource Debian and Ubuntu binary distributions repository (formerly Chris Lea's Launchpad PPA). Support for this repository, along with its scripts, can be found on GitHub at nodesource/distributions.
Note
To install Node.js version 8, enter these commands on your terminal:
$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
Alternatively, if you want to install Node.js 10 you could use these commands:
$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
To compile and install native addons from npm you may also need to install build tools:
$ sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
Verify Installation
To verify whether your installation is correct:
$ node --version
v8.11.3
$ npm --version
5.6.0
Optional: Update npm Version
npm is a separate project from Node.js, and tends to update more frequently. As a result, even if you’ve just downloaded Node.js (and therefore npm), you’ll probably need to update your npm. Luckily, npm knows how to update itself! To update your npm, type this into your terminal:
$ sudo npm install npm@latest -g
/usr/bin/npm -> /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js
+ [email protected]
added 283 packages, removed 363 packages and updated 41 packages in 8.961s
$ npm --version
6.3.0
Final Words
I hope that you now know how to install Node.js 8/10 on Linux Mint 18.3. If you run into any issues or have any feedback feel free to drop a comment below.
