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fnm

fnm

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github.comDeveloper Tools27.2kfnmUpdated 2d ago
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About fnm

fnm is a command-line tool for managing multiple Node.js versions on one machine. It installs releases such as the latest LTS, switches the active version with a single command and lists what is available locally. It is written in Rust and runs on several platforms.

Key features

  1. 01Install the latest LTS release with fnm install --lts
  2. 02Switch the active Node.js version with fnm use 24
  3. 03List installed versions with fnm list
  4. 04Install through Homebrew with brew install fnm
  5. 05Fits into shell scripts as a composable CLI

Use cases

  1. 01Matching a project's required Node.js version before running builds
  2. 02Testing a package against several Node.js releases
  3. 03Setting up a consistent Node.js toolchain on a new machine
  4. 04Letting a coding agent switch Node versions inside a shell session

Install

Pick your OS or package manager and run the command in a terminal.

$
brew install fnm

Once installed, runfnm --versionto confirm it works.

Example commands

Common commands in the order you’d use them.

01
fnm install --lts
02
fnm use 24
03
fnm list

Details

From the project README

Fast Node Manager (fnm) Amount of downloads GitHub Actions workflow status

🚀 Fast and simple Node.js version manager, built in Rust

Blazing fast!

Features

🌎 Cross-platform support (macOS, Windows, Linux)

✨ Single file, easy installation, instant startup

🚀 Built with speed in mind

📂 Works with .node-version and .nvmrc files

Installation

Using a script (macOS/Linux)

For bash, zsh and fish shells, there's an automatic installation script.

First ensure that curl and unzip are already installed on your operating system. Then execute:

curl -fsSL https://fnm.vercel.app/install | bash
Upgrade

On macOS, it is as simple as brew upgrade fnm.

On other operating systems, upgrading fnm is almost the same as installing it. To prevent duplication in your shell config file, pass --skip-shell to the install command:

curl -fsSL https://fnm.vercel.app/install | bash -s -- --skip-shell
Parameters

--install-dir

Set a custom directory for fnm to be installed. The default is $XDG_DATA_HOME/fnm (if $XDG_DATA_HOME is not defined it falls back to $HOME/.local/share/fnm on linux and $HOME/Library/Application Support/fnm on MacOS).

Note: On macOS, this option is only meaningful when using --force-install since Homebrew is the default installation method.

--skip-shell

Skip appending shell specific loader to shell config file, based on the current user shell, defined in $SHELL. e.g. for Bash, $HOME/.bashrc. $HOME/.zshrc for Zsh. For Fish - $HOME/.config/fish/conf.d/fnm.fish

--force-install

macOS installations using the installation script are deprecated in favor of the Homebrew formula, but this forces the script to install using it anyway.

Example:

curl -fsSL https://fnm.vercel.app/install | bash -s -- --install-dir "./.fnm" --skip-shell
Manually
Using Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install fnm

Then, set up your shell for fnm

Using Winget (Windows)
winget install Schniz.fnm
Using Scoop (Windows)
scoop install fnm

Then, set up your shell for fnm

Using Chocolatey (Windows)
choco install fnm

Then, set up your shell for fnm

Using Cargo (Linux/macOS/Windows)
cargo install fnm

Then, set up your shell for fnm

Using a release binary (Linux/macOS/Windows)
Removing

To remove fnm (😢), just delete the .fnm folder in your home directory. You should also edit your shell configuration to remove any references to fnm (ie. read Shell Setup, and do the opposite).

Completions

fnm ships its completions with the binary:

fnm completions --shell <SHELL>

Where <SHELL> can be one of the supported shells:

  • bash
  • zsh
  • fish
  • powershell

Please follow your shell instructions to install them.

Shell Setup

Environment variables need to be setup before you can start using fnm. This is done by evaluating the output of fnm env.

Tip

Prefer passing an explicit shell (for example fnm env --shell bash) instead of relying on shell inference at runtime. It is a bit faster and avoids process tree detection.

Note

Check out the Configuration section to enable highly recommended features, like automatic version switching.

Adding a .node-version to your project is as simple as:

$ node --version
v14.18.3
$ node --version > .node-version

Check out the following guides for the shell you use:

Bash

Add the following to your .bashrc profile:

eval "$(fnm env --use-on-cd --shell bash)"
Zsh

Add the following to your .zshrc profile:

eval "$(fnm env --use-on-cd --shell zsh)"
Fish shell

Create ~/.config/fish/conf.d/fnm.fish and add this line to it:

fnm env --use-on-cd --shell fish | source
PowerShell

Add the following to the end of your profile file:

fnm env --use-on-cd --shell powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression
  • For macOS/Linux, the profile is located at ~/.config/powershell/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
  • For Windows location is either:
    • %userprofile%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 Powershell 5
    • %userprofile%\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 Powershell 6+
  • To create the profile file you can run this in PowerShell:
    if (-not (Test-Path $profile)) { New-Item $profile -Force }
    
  • To edit your profile run this in PowerShell:
    Invoke-Item $profile
    
Windows Command Prompt aka Batch aka WinCMD

fnm is also supported but is not entirely covered. You can set up a startup script for cmd.exe or Windows Terminal and append the following lines:

@echo off
:: for /F will launch a new instance of cmd so we create a guard to prevent an infnite loop
if not defined FNM_AUTORUN_GUARD (
    set "FNM_AUTORUN_GUARD=AutorunGuard"
    FOR /f "tokens=*" %%z IN ('fnm env --use-on-cd') DO CALL %%z
)
Usage with Cmder

Usage is very similar to the normal WinCMD install, apart for a few tweaks to allow being called from the cmder startup script. The example assumes that the CMDER_ROOT environment variable is set to the root directory of your Cmder installation. Then you can do something like this:

  • Make a .cmd file to invoke it
:: %CMDER_ROOT%\bin\fnm_init.cmd
@echo off
FOR /f "tokens=*" %%z IN ('fnm env --use-on-cd') DO CALL %%z
  • Add it to the startup script
:: %CMDER_ROOT%\config\user_profile.cmd
call "%CMDER_ROOT%\bin\fnm_init.cmd"

You can replace %CMDER_ROOT% with any other convenient path too.

Configuration

See the available configuration options for an extended configuration documentation

Usage

See the available commands for an extended usage documentation

Contributing

PRs welcome :tada:

Developing:
# Install Rust
git clone https://github.com/Schniz/fnm.git
cd fnm/
cargo build
Running Binary:
cargo run -- --help # Will behave like `fnm --help`
Running Tests:
cargo test

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