nvm: command not found error [Solved]

# nvm: command not found error [Solved]

To solve the error "nvm: command not found", run the curl or wget commands to download and run the installation script, close your terminal and open a new one.

The script from the commands clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm and loads nvm on system start.

Open your terminal and run one of the following commands:

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# 👇️ using curl
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash

# 👇️ using wget
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash

Running either of the commands above will download the nvm script and run it.

The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm and tries to add 2 lines of code to the correct profile (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc) to load nvm on system boot.

NOTE: if you are on Windows, follow the instructions in my how to install NVM on Windows article.

You can see which shell you are using with the following command:

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# 👇️ e.g. zsh
echo $0

You can verify if nvm was installed successfully by running the following command:

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command -v nvm

If nvm was installed successfully, it should output "nvm".

Alternatively, try running the command that corresponds to your shell to source it.

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# 👇️ for bash
source ~/.bashrc

# 👇️ for zsh
source ~/.zshrc

# 👇️ for ksh
. ~/.profile

And try to run command -v nvm again.

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command -v nvm

If you still get the error, open the file that corresponds to your shell (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc) and make sure it contains the following 2 lines:

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export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

If your shell doesn't have a corresponding config file, e.g. your shell is zsh, but you don't have a ~/.zshrc file, you have to create one by running touch ~/.zshrc.

You can see which shell you are using with the following command:

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# 👇️ e.g. zsh
echo $0

If you had to create a config file for your shell, you have to re-run the installation script again:

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# 👇️ using curl
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash

# 👇️ using wget
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash

Try to close your terminal, open a new one and verify whether nvm is installed:

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command -v nvm

Or run the source command that corresponds to your shell.

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# 👇️ for bash
source ~/.bashrc

# 👇️ for zsh
source ~/.zshrc

# 👇️ for ksh
. ~/.profile

# 👇️ verify nvm installed
command -v nvm

If running command -v nvm still returns nvm: command not found, check out the troubleshooting section in the nvm repository.

If you're on Windows, you can try using nvm for windows, which is the most popular package for managing multiple installations of Node.js on Windows.