What's the currently recommended way to install node.js on Debian?

Question

I've found a few different methods on the web, but some of the articles are quite old, and I'm concerned that the methods they describe have been superceded.

Can anyone tell me what the currently recommended method, to best utilise package management etc?

Answer 1

The official node.js github page has a rundown for all distros, Debian included. They recommend installing from source:

apt-get install python g++ curl libssl-dev
mkdir /tmp/nodejs && cd /tmp/nodejs
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/node-latest.tar.gz
tar xzvf node-latest.tar.gz && cd node-v*
./configure
make
make test
make install

Remember that installing from source will definitely get you the latest software, however sometimes it is more difficult to uninstall all files attached to a specific project. In order to avoid this, use checkinstall to build yourself a quick package.

I was able to build a .deb package on Ubuntu by following the guide here. This should probably also work for Debian too ;-)

Answer 2

You can install node.js through apt-get.

# echo deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sid.list
# apt-get update
# apt-get install nodejs

Answer 3

You can avoid mixing Debian versions (a recipe for pain!) by building your own .debs

https://github.com/mark-webster/node-debian

You can build .deb files for arbitrary versions of node.js, so you can install / upgrade / uninstall it easily. It's a bit quick and dirty, but at least it's something until the official Debian packages arrive in stable.