node.md

IMPORTANT NOTE: We're starting to migrate contents of this repo to the devcontainers org, as part of the work on the open dev container specification.

We've currently migrated the node Feature to devcontainers/features/src/node.

For more details, you can review the announcement issue.

Node.js Install Script

Installs Node.js, nvm, yarn, and needed dependencies.

Script status: Stable

OS support: Debian 9+, Ubuntu 18.04+, and downstream distros.

Maintainer: The VS Code and GitHub Codespaces teams

Syntax

./node-debian.sh [Location to install nvm] [node version to install (use "none" to skip)] [non-root user] [Update rc files flag] [Install node-gyp deps flag]

Or as a feature:

"features": {
    "node": {
        "version": "lts",
        "nodeGypDependencies": true
    }
}

Argument	Feature option	Default	Description
Location to install nvm		/usr/local/share/nvm	Location to install the Node Version Manager (nvm) along with Node.js and Node modules.
Node version to install	version	lts	Node.js version to install. Use none to skip installing anything and just install nvm and yarn.
Non-root user		automatic	Specifies a user in the container other than root that will use Node.js. A value of automatic will cause the script to check for a user called vscode, then node, codespace, and finally a user with a UID of 1000 before falling back to root.
Add to rc files flag		true	A true/false flag that indicates whether sourcing the nvm script should be added to /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/zsh/zshrc.
Install node-gyp deps flag	nodeGypDependencies	true	A true/false flag that indicates whether the script should check for key requirements for node-gyp (python, make, gcc) and install them if missing.

Usage

Feature use

To install these capabilities in your primary dev container, reference it in devcontainer.json as follows:

"features": {
    "node": {
        "version": "lts",
        "nodeGypDependencies": true
    }
}

If you have already built your development container, run the Rebuild Container command from the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P or F1) to pick up the change.

Script use

1. Add node-debian.sh to .devcontainer/library-scripts

2. Add the following to your .devcontainer/Dockerfile:

   ENV NVM_DIR="/usr/local/share/nvm"
   ENV NVM_SYMLINK_CURRENT=true \
       PATH=${NVM_DIR}/current/bin:${PATH}
   COPY library-scripts/node-debian.sh /tmp/library-scripts/
   RUN apt-get update && bash /tmp/library-scripts/node-debian.sh "${NVM_DIR}"

Using nvm from a Dockerfile or postCreateCommand

Certain operations like postCreateCommand run non-interactive, non-login shells. Unfortunately, nvm is really particular that it needs to be "sourced" before it is used - which can only be done from interactive or login shells (via an rc or profile file).

Try doing the following instead:

"postCreateCommand": "bash -i -c 'nvm install --lts'"

Or you can source the file before using nvm:

"postCreateCommand": ". ${NVM_DIR}/nvm.sh && nvm install --lts"

That's it!