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javafueled
javafueled

Reputation: 534

Why does `node` pin versions of `npm` to each release?

Some questions and answers hint there is an answer, but I don't think I see an answer in the forest.

I turned to brew to move away from nvm due to how my IDE loads the $PATH from the launcher. It seemed that it would not find the installed version of node or npm from the .nvm directory. When loaded from /usr/local/bin the IDE worked fine. Add that brew has an nvm-lite feature with brew link --force [version].

However, what brew does not do is managed npm (at least very well). There is some discussion of this on the brew boards, but only that the suggestion that brew does not need to manage npm.

Thusly, brew install node gives me node 7.7.2 and npm 4.1.2. All good.

But brew unlink node && brew link node@6 gives me node 6.10.0 and leaves npm 4.1.2. Whereas nodejs.org suggests npm 3.10.10 is the version of npm one should use.

Now, if node pins a version of npm for a reason, and assuming a good reason, what is the reason? I can't find anything. No one is talking about this connection. It might be my Google Fu, but what I have found suggests that a) no one knows, or b) the version of npm you use doesn't matter. The reasoning for the latter seems dubious: why bother pinning a version of npm to node if it didn't matter?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1227

Answers (1)

javafueled
javafueled

Reputation: 534

I think I was looking for an explicit statement from nodejs or npmjs about the "pinning" of an npm version to a node version/release.

Barring an explicit statement, I could read between the lines on npmjs: the pinning is simply a convenience for the user.

Node comes with npm installed so you should have a version of npm. However, npm gets updated more frequently than Node does, so you'll want to make sure it's the latest version.

It then proceeds to tell the reader, run npm install npm@latest -g.

Test: Run npm -v. The version should be higher than 2.1.8.

Reading Between the Lines

Simply put, installing node gives you a version of npm at the time of the node release. npmjs suggests updating npm at your convenience.

So running node v6.10.10 with npm v4.1.2 should not be a problem. At least not a documented problem.

Upvotes: 3

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