node

Installs a node binary into your project, which because npm runs scripts with the local ./node_modules/.bin in the PATH ahead of the system copy means you can have a local version of node that is different than your system's, and manage node as a normal dependency.

Warning: don't install this globally with npm 2. npm@2 immediately removes node, then can't run the scripts that make this work.

Use

npm i node@lts

Note: This package uses a preinstall script to download the correct binary for your platform. Newer versions of npm block install scripts by default. If installation fails or the node binary is missing, add the following to your package.json and reinstall:

{
  "allowScripts": ["node"]
}

Or run npm approve-scripts after installation.

Use with npx

npx node@4 myscript.js

This will run myscript.js with the latest version of node from the v4 major.

Using the shell auto-fallback of npx, you can even do it like so:

node@4 myscript.js

Thanks

Major thanks to Kat Marchán for late-night problem solving, and to CJ Silverio and Maciej Małecki for egging me on way back when I had the idea to package node up this way. It does turn out if you ask "why not?!" once in a while something fun happens.