How to install Node.js 7.x on Ubuntu/Debian and CentOS

January 2017

Node.js 7.x is the current stable release of the Node.js, which is actively maintained in parallel to Node.js 6.x Long-Term Support (LTS). At the moment, the latest version is Node.js v7.4.0, and you can find the Node.js v7.x Changelog here on Github.

This guide shows a quick and reliable way to install the current Node.js 7.x version (including npm) on Ubuntu/Debian and CentOS, using the system package manager, in order to continually receive security updates without risking a major version jump with possibly breaking changes.

Installing Node.js 7.x on Ubuntu and Debian

This is the official way to install Node.js 7.x on Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) and elementaryOS:

# Install Node.js 7.x repository
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | bash -

# Install Node.js and npm
apt-get install -y nodejs

The setup_7.x bash script basically just checks whether your operating system version is suppored and adds the corresponding repository (eg. https://deb.nodesource.com/node_7.x xenial InRelease).

Installing Node.js 7.x on CentOS 7

Node.js provides a script for CentOS/Fedora/RHEL based distributions, which checks your operating system and adds the corresponding RPM repository for yum, the standard package manager:

# Install Node.js 7.x repository
curl -sL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | bash -

# Install Node.js and npm
yum install nodejs

The content of the script can be found here: https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_7.x.

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