Install Node.js

Install Node.js binary distribution

Node.js installation is a simple task. We just need the right steps. In this tutorial, we shall learn to setup environment for Node.js and the prerequisites to start developing Node.js applications.

JavaScript programming language is used for Node.js Application Development. The source files of Node.js applications have extension of “.js”. Any text editor is sufficient to write Node.js code and save it as .js file.

To interpret the instructions written in the source .js files, Node.js interpreter is required. The Node.js is available as a binary distribution.

Download Node.js

Download the latest binary distribution from https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest/. Based on the Operating System and Architecture, download a suitable package. The size would be less than 20MB.

Following are the latest packages available at the time of writing this tutorials (for x64).

OS	Package
Linux	node-v8.4.0-linux-x64.tar.gz
MacOS	node-v8.4.0-darwin-x64.tar.gz
Windows	node-v8.4.0-win-x64.zip
SunOS	node-v8.4.0-sunos-x64.tar.gz

For linux kernel based OS like Ubuntu/MacOS/SunOS

Once the download is complete, extract the package and include it in the system path variable.

Go to the downloaded folder, Open a Terminal from there and execute the following commands.

Unzip the compressed package

 ~$ tar xvfz node-v8.4.0-linux-x64.tar.gz

Make nodejs directory in /usr/local/. Replace the file name, if it is different from what you have downloaded.

 ~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/nodejs

Move the extracted nodejs package to /usr/local/nodejs/. Provide user password if asked.

 ~$ sudo mv node-v8.4.0-linux-x64/* /usr/local/nodejs/

Add the path /usr/local/nodejs/bin to PATH environment variable. Provide user password if asked.

Open .bashrc file and append the nodejs’ path at the end. To edit .bashrc, open a terminal and run the following command :

 ~$ sudo nano ~/.bashrc

Add the following line at the end of .bashrc file.

$ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/nodejs/bin

Once after adding the line, close the terminal and reopen again.

To verify if nodejs path has been added to PATH environment variable, run the following command :

 ~$ echo $PATH

For Windows OS, the value echoed back should have /usr/local/nodejs/bin.

For installing Node.js on Windows Operating System, double click on the .msi file and follow the prompt step by step. Finishing the prompt should install Node.js with PATH added to the environment variables.

Verify Node.js installation

Using a Text Editor, create a sample file with name verifyNode.js and copy paste the following content to that file.

verifyNode.js

console.log("Hi there! This is Node.js!")

And run the following command in Command prompt or Terminal from the directory of verifyNode.js script file.

Output

$ node verifyNode.js 
Hi there! This is Node.js!

Run Node.js File

Following is the syntax to run a Node.js file using node command line interface :

~$ node <file_name>

Conclusion

In this Node.js Tutorial, we have learnt to install Node.js on a computer and verify the installation by executing a sample script(.js) file.