Node.js and NPM on Hypernode (to use Gulp, Sass, Compass, Less, grunt-cli, etc)

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Update 18-08-2016: We decided to pre-install Node.js on all Hypernodes due to growing demand. You can still choose to install the most recent version by downloading the preinstalled version from the Node.js website, just be aware a Node.js installation is present on the Hypernode itself already.

Using the installed version of Node.js

If you use the installed version, you can just start using node and npm.

Setting your PATH

If you want to execute the tools that you installed using npm, you should make sure these executables can be located by the shell. This can be easily done this by adjusting your PATH setting.

This PATH variable is used by the Bash shell to locate binaries and scripts. You can adjust it by exporting the PATH variable:

If you want this setting to be configured every time you log in to your Hypernode, you can add this setting to your ~/.profile, this file is loaded every time a new shell is spawned.

To configure your PATH variable at login time, run the following command:

Now every time you log in, the Bash shell is configured to look for tools in /data/web/node_modules/.bin and /data/web/.node/bin.

Installing packages

Lets install some packages.

When your PATH is setup correctly, after the installation with npm install, you should immediately be able to use the newly installed tool.

To find the latest command line tool installed, run: ls -ltr /data/web/node_modules/.bin | tail -1

Install Gulp

Install Grunt

Install Sass

Install Compass

Install Less

You see the pattern here i presume? 🙂

Install Yarn

To install yarn, a more recent version of nodejs is required, so follow the instructions and download and unpack a newer version of nodejs first

Using a newer version of Node.js

Install a newer version of Node.js

If you want to use a more recent version, it is very easy to install the latest version of Node.js yourself.

NodeJs offers precompiled packages on their website that are ready to use on your Hypernode.
All we need to do is download and unpack them to make use of node and npm and install your own node modules.

In this example we use version v4.4.5 but the installation process is the same when using older or newer versions.

  • First, create the directory where we will unpack Node.js:

  • Then, get the precompiled package from the Node.js website and unpack it in our directory:

That’s it 🙂 you now have a precompiled node installation in ~/node

Configure a manually installed Node.js

To run the manually installed executables, you need to change your PATH variable to make sure your node is located by the Bash shell before the pre-installed version.

To do this, run the following command to add the locations to your PATH:

Or to make the settings permanent, add it to your ~/.profile:

Both the installations (the already installed or the precompiled self-downloaded version) use /data/web/node_modules as their location to install new packages to when using npm.

Troubleshooting

  • When using npm search, so much memory is used that on Hypernode Start and Grow plans, your shell will get killed and you’ll be automagically logged out of your Hypernode due to our out of memory protection.
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