Updating Nodejs version never works!

[eeeee]

Off topic but I tried to see whats in etc directory
Theres an environment file which seems to have duplicated words?!,
cat environment gives:
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/sr/local/games:/snap/bin"

And then in directory called environment.d, with two files

90atk-adaptor.conf 90gt-a11y.conf

Nothing with any paths related to NodeJs

[phenomlab]

@eeeee yes, as I suspected. Can you provide the output of nvm list?

[eeeee]

@phenomlab
Im trying to upload photo but it keeps saying unsuported file format for my jpg !
So thats another issue to come back to

But nvm list
-> v18.6.0

[eeeee]

Trying photo again...
This time it worked,

Its not picking up v18 though as I tried a small index.js file with the fetch command and its not recognised. And I know native fetch was introduced in v18

[phenomlab]

@eeeee I'd expect more output than that, but try
nvm use v18.6.0 followed by node --version

Edit - however, that does look very much like 18.6.0 is already the default.

[eeeee]

@phenomlab i typed
nvm use v18.6.0

And it said
N/A: version "v18.6.0 -> N/A" is not yet installed

So i did nvm install v18.6.0 and its says now using node v18.6.0
But nodejs --version still says 12.22.9

[phenomlab]

@eeeee try nvm use stable

[eeeee]

@phenomlab
Just done, it said now using v18.16.0
But
Still says v12 !

[phenomlab]

@eeeee that can only be path related.

[eeeee]

@phenomlab yes one of the tutorials said to delete Path which i tried
How can i put new Path in?

[phenomlab]

@eeeee have you considered removing the older versions? They will be vulnerable anyway and should be removed unless you have an app that depends on old code

[eeeee]

@phenomlab i thought I had removed older ones. Im keen to clear them out
What should i type?

[phenomlab]

@eeeee they are all still listed.

You should be able to uninstall a specific node version with (example)

nvm uninstall 8.16.2

[eeeee]

@phenomlab
Well I dont know why, as Ive never installed loads of older versions!
How can I remove them?

[phenomlab]

@eeeee see above post

[eeeee]

@phenomlab ok how do i know what versions are installed, so i can uninstall?
I tried
nvm unistall 4.9.1
and nvm uninstall 8.16.2
But it says N/A version is not installed

Even says 16.13.0 not installed (which I saw listed in that output)
You said they are still listed, but where?
nvm list only has 18.16.0 in green?

[eeeee]

@phenomlab
It even says 12.22.9 not installed even though its the --version given!!!

[phenomlab]

@eeeee I think I might need to look at this directly if that works for you. You have a user account over at Sudonix.com, so could you contact me there to save clogging up this site?

[eeeee]

Just as an update, incase anyone else with same issue looks up this thread...
I was totally unaware that nodejs and node are two different commands
I should have been doing node --version, as this is what nodeBB uses !
Thanks @phenomlab for sorting it all out

[julian]

@eeeee for what it's worth, it's internal policy in NodeBB that nvm and n NEVER be installed on our client machines.

It's caused far too much headache for this very same reason. I think I have gone as far as to migrate an entire client site to another server just to get back to a node version I could control. It was rather cathartic to send the old server to /dev/null.

Anyway, the problem here is as @phenomlab pointed out, is path related. Both n and nvm fmuck around with the symlinks in /usr/bin or /bin, etc., and there's no easy way to undo what those scripts do unless you run the uninstallation script.

How do you know which uninstall script to run? You don't. Did you use nvm or n, and if so, which one? Who knows now. If you do know, does the script provide information (via --help flag or whatnot) to instruct you on how to uninstall it? Ha ha, of course not.

Let me have apt control my dependencies any day. Warts and all. Rant over.