nodeenv Documentation

You can install nodeenv globally or locally depending on your workflow.

Global Installation

Install via pip or easy_install:

sudo pip install nodeenv

Local Installation (inside a Python virtualenv)

If you are already using virtualenv, you can install nodeenv directly into that environment:

virtualenv env
. env/bin/activate
(env) $ pip install nodeenv

Install from GitHub

To use the latest version from the source:

pip install -e git+https://github.com/ekalinin/nodeenv.git#egg=nodeenv

If you are using Python's virtualenv or virtualenvwrapper, you can add Node.js to an existing Python environment. This allows Node.js modules to be installed directly into the Python virtual environment.

1. Create or activate your Python virtual environment (e.g., using mkvirtualenv).
2. Run nodeenv -p to add Node.js to the active environment.

You can achieve reproducible installations by using a requirements file. This file contains a list of packages and their specific versions (e.g., package@version).

To create an exact copy of an environment from a requirements file, use the --requirement flag.

# Example requirements file content (prod-requirements.txt)
connect@1.3.0
express@2.2.2
npm@0.3.17

# Create an environment from the requirements file
$ nodeenv --requirement=../prod-requirements.txt --jobs=4 env-copy

If you are using virtualenv or virtualenv_wrapper, you can add a Node.js environment directly into your existing Python environment using the -p or --python-virtualenv flag.

Using virtualenv_wrapper

$ mkvirtualenv my_env
$ nodeenv -p

Using virtualenv

$ . my_env/bin/activate
$ nodeenv -p

After running nodeenv -p, your Node.js modules will be installed into the Python virtual environment's directory.

You can create repeatable installations by using a requirements file containing a list of packages (e.g., connect@1.3.0).

Create environment from requirements

nodeenv --requirements=../prod-requirements.txt --jobs=4 env-copy

Update existing environment from requirements

To update packages in an active environment without reinstalling Node.js:

. env-4.3/bin/activate
(env-4.3)$ nodeenv --requirements=requirements.txt --update env-4.3

Save current environment state

To save the versions of currently installed global packages to a file, use the freeze command (part of the environment's bin directory):

. env-4.3/bin/activate
(env-4.3)$ npm install -g express
(env-4.3)$ freeze ../prod-requirements.txt

You can install nodeenv globally using pip or easy_install. For local installation within an existing Python virtualenv, activate the environment first and then use pip or easy_install.

To use the latest development version, you can clone the repository and run the script directly.

# Global installation
$ sudo pip install nodeenv

# Local installation in a virtualenv
$ virtualenv env
$ . env/bin/activate
(env) $ pip install nodeenv

# Install from repository
$ git clone https://github.com/ekalinin/nodeenv.git
$ ./nodeenv/nodeenv.py --help

You can use an INI-style file at ~/.nodeenvrc to set default values for many options. The keys in the file should match the long command-line option names.

Example configuration:

[nodeenv]
node = 'latest'
npm = 'latest'
with_npm = False
jobs = '2'
without_ssl = False
debug = False
profile = False
make = 'make'
prebuilt = True
ignore_ssl_certs = False
mirror = None

If you want to call node from an environment without manually activating it, use the shim script located in the environment's bin directory.

Example:

./env-4.3/bin/shim --version

When creating an environment, you can specify specific versions of Node.js and npm, control SSL support, and set the number of parallel compilation jobs using the following flags:

• --without-ssl: Install Node.js without SSL support.
• --node=<version>: Specify the Node.js version.
• --npm=<version>: Specify the npm version.
• --jobs=<number>: Set the number of parallel jobs for compilation.
• --requirement=<file>: Create an environment from a requirements file.