Reinforce Node version

reinforce-node-version.md

Reinforcing node version

To specify which version of Node the app should be using, use the engines property on package.json, like so (in this case sticking to version 5):

{
  "name": "my-app",
  ...
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=5.0.0 <6.0.0"
  }
}

This one has the same effect:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  ...
  "engines": {
    "node": "^5.0.0"
  }
}

Docs:

• https://docs.npmjs.com/files/package.json#engines
• https://github.com/npm/node-semver

engines is meant to set node version for dependencies. If you want to reinforce the use of the node version and throw an error, you can use a package like:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/engine-check

npm install --save engine-check or yarn add engine-check

Managing different versions of node locally

When dealing with node, the need to change node versions locally has become common place.

Save yourself a lot of headache and manage node through nvm (node version manager) only, if you can help it.

All other alternatives (installing node directly with curl, indirectly through binary installers or homebrew) are simply not as flexible.

Docs:

• https://github.com/creationix/nvm