What is the suggested way to install brew, node.js

Question

I am trying to use homebrew as much as possible. What's the suggested way to install the following on OS X?

• node.js
• io.js
• nvm
• npm

and hopefully supports development for:

• ionic
• ngCordova

Answer 1

You should install node.js with nvm, because that way you do not have to provide superuser privileges when installing global packages (you can simply execute "npm install -g packagename" without prepending 'sudo').

Brew is fantastic for other things, however. I tend to be biased towards Bower whenever I have the option to install something with Bower.

Answer 2

I'm super late to this but I didn't like the other answers

Installing Homebrew

For brew run

"$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Installing node & npm

You SHOULD NOT use brew to install node and npm.

I've seen a few places suggested that you should use Homebrew to install Node (like alexpods answer and in this Team Treehouse blog Post) but installing this way you're more prone to run into issues as npm and brew are both package managers and you should have a package manager manage another package manager this leads to problems, like this bug offical npm issues Error: Refusing to delete: /usr/local/bin/npm or this Can't uninstall npm module on OSX

You can read more on the topic in DanHerbert's post Fixing npm On Mac OS X for Homebrew Users, where he goes on to say

Also, using the Homebrew installation of npm will require you to use sudo when installing global packages. Since one of the core ideas behind Homebrew is that apps can be installed without giving them root access, this is a bad idea.

For Everything else

I'd use npm; but you really should just follow the install instruction for each modules following the directions on there website as they will be more aware of any issue or bug they have than anyone else

Answer 3

1. Using homebrew install nvm:

   brew update
   brew install nvm
   source $(brew --prefix nvm)/nvm.sh
   

   Add the last command to the .profile, .bashrc or .zshrc file to not run it again on every terminal start. So for example to add it to the .profile run:

   echo "source $(brew --prefix nvm)/nvm.sh" >> ~/.profile
   

   If you have trouble with installing nvm using brew you can install it manually (see here)

2. Using nvm install node or iojs (you can install any version you want):

   nvm install 0.10
   # or
   nvm install iojs-1.2.0
   

3. npm is shipping with node (or iojs), so it will be available after installing node (or iojs). You may want to upgrade it to the latest version:

   $ npm install -g npm@latest
   

   UPD Previous version was npm update -g npm. Thanks to @Metallica for pointing to the correct way (look at the comment bellow).

4. Using npm install ionic:

   npm install -g ionic
   

5. What about ngCordova: you can install it using npm or bower. I don't know what variant is more fit for you, it depends on the package manager you want to use for the client side. So I'll describe them both:

   1. Using npm: Go to your project folder and install ng-cordova in it:

      npm install --save ng-cordova
      

   2. Using bower: Install bower:

       npm install -g bower
      

      And then go to your project folder and install ngCordova in it:

       bower install --save ngCordova
      

PS

1. Some commands may require superuser privilege
2. Short variant of npm install some_module is npm i some_module