PolyNode is a CLI tool that helps install and manage multiple versions of Node.js on the same device. It does not require sudo/admin privileges, and is installed on a per-user basis. Works on AIX, Linux, macOS, and Windows.
- Project directory structure
- Supported operating systems and CPU architectures
- How to install
- How to use
- Upgrading PolyNode
- Searching for available Node.js versions
- Downloading a new version of Node.js
- Setting your default Node.js version
- Temporarily setting your Node.js version
- Downloading and setting your default Node.js to a new version
- Printing your current version of Node.js
- Printing all downloaded versions of Node.js
- Deleting a downloaded version of Node.js
- Printing your current version of PolyNode
- How to configure
- How to uninstall
- Building from source
- Contributing
- Acknowledgements
PolyNode
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── SECURITY.md
├── cmd
│  └── polyn
│  └── main.go
├── go.mod
├── install
│  ├── cmd
│  │  └── setup
│  │  ├── helpers.go
│  │  ├── helpers_windows.go
│  │  ├── setup.go
│  │  └── setup_windows.go
│  ├── go.mod
│  ├── go.sum
│  └── internal
│  └── constants
│  └── constants.go
├── internal
│  ├── constants
│  │  └── constants.go
│  ├── homeDir-prod.go
│  ├── homeDir.go
│  ├── models
│  │  ├── aliases.go
│  │  ├── nodeVersion.go
│  │  └── polyNodeConfig.go
│  ├── node
│  │  ├── commands.go
│  │  ├── helpers.go
│  │  └── node.go
│  └── utilities
│  └── utils.go
├── scripts
│  ├── aix
│  │  └── bundle
│  ├── linux
│  │  └── bundle
│  ├── mac
│  │  └── bundle
│  └── win
│  └── bundle.cmd
└── uninstall
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
├── uninstall.go
└── uninstall_windows.go
- AIX (Power 64-bit)
- Linux (x64, ARM64, Power LE 64-bit, and s390x)
- macOS (x64 and ARM64)
- Windows 10 and newer (x64 and ARM64)
PolyNode does not require sudo/admin privileges to install.
Please uninstall all Node.js downloads that weren't installed by PolyNode before running the setup binary.
- Navigate to the latest release.
- Download the AIX .tar.gz file.
- Extract the .tar.gz file and run the setup binary.
PolyNode only supports Bash, Zsh, or KornShell by default. During the install process, PolyNode edits either .bashrc, .zshrc, or .kshrc to add two locations to the PATH: PolyNode's home directory $HOME/.PolyNode and the symlink for Node.js $HOME/.PolyNode/nodejs/bin. You can get PolyNode to work for other shells by adding these directories to your PATH environment variable.
- Navigate to the latest release.
- Download the Linux .tar.xz file appropriate for your CPU architecture.
- Extract the .tar.xz file and run the setup binary.
- Navigate to the latest release.
- Download the Darwin .tar.gz file appropriate for your CPU architecture.
- Extract the .tar.gz file and run the setup binary.
- Navigate to the latest release.
- Download the Windows .zip file appropriate for your CPU architecture.
- Extract the .zip file and run setup.exe.
PolyNode does not require sudo/admin privileges to use the polyn command.
polyn upgrade
polyn search [prefix]
Using a prefix will match anything with this prefix. So polyn search 1 will match with any Node.js version that starts with "1".
If you want to search for a specific major version, add a "." at the end of your prefix. polyn search 18. will print all Node.js v18 releases.
A default list will print if no prefix is given.
This command will only download a new version of Node.js. It will not set the new version as your currently-used version. See Setting your default Node.js version or Temporarily setting your Node.js version on how to use the Node.js you download.
polyn add <version>
You can also use the lts keyword to download the latest LTS release without providing a specific version.
polyn add lts
The latest keyword will download the latest release of Node.js.
polyn add latest
This command will set your Node.js version across all shell processes. All new shell processes will automatically use this Node.js version, unless overriden by temporarily setting the Node.js version.
polyn use <version>
This command will temporarily set your Node.js version for your current shell process and all child processes of that shell. This will only set your Node.js version for the lifetime of the shell. For a more permanent solution, see Setting your default Node.js version.
This command is useful if you need to run two separate projects at the same time that depend on different versions of Node.js.
eval $(polyn temp <version>)
Unfortunately, Windows doesn't have a command equivalent to the POSIX eval. You will have to run polyn temp <version> and then copy and paste the command it outputs.
This command downloads a specific version of Node.js and immediately sets it as your default version.
The install command is equivalent to the add command followed by the use command.
polyn install <version>
You can also use the lts keyword to download the latest LTS release without providing a specific version.
polyn install lts
The latest keyword will download the latest release of Node.js.
polyn install latest
polyn current
polyn ls
or
polyn list
polyn rm <version>
or
polyn remove <version>
polyn version
PolyNode's configuration is handled through a JSON file named polynrc.json located in PolyNode's home directory ($HOME/.PolyNode for AIX/Linux/macOS or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PolyNode for Windows). Please see below for the default configuration for polynrc.json:
{
"nodeMirror": "https://nodejs.org/dist"
}
This field is a string that represents the URL to download Node.js. Default value is "https://nodejs.org/dist".
PolyNode does not require sudo/admin privileges to uninstall.
- Run the
$HOME/.PolyNode/uninstall/uninstallbinary.
- Run
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PolyNode\uninstall\uninstall.exe.
- Go 1.23.4
Run the POSIX shell script ./scripts/aix/bundle. This script will build PolyNode's source code for Power 64-bit and bundle the artifacts as a .tar.gz file.
Run the POSIX shell script ./scripts/linux/bundle. This script will build PolyNode's source code for x64 and ARM64 and bundle the artifacts as separate .tar.xz files.
macOS has a POSIX shell script (./scripts/mac/bundle) that builds and notarizes PolyNode's source code for x64 and ARM64 and bundles the artifacts as separate .tar.gz files. If you don't need to distribute the binaries, then you don't need the notarization step. Just edit the bundle script and set the sign variable to 0.
Run the batchfile .\scripts\win\bundle.cmd. This batchfile will build PolyNode's source code for x64 and ARM64 and bundle the artifacts as separate .zip files.
All contributions are welcome! If you wish to contribute to the project, the best way would be forking this repo and making a pull request from your fork with all of your suggested changes.
PolyNode draws a lot of inspiration, especially in regards to syntax, from other, more well-known projects, like: nvm, nvm-windows, and nvs.