From io.js back to Node.js, time to update my installation guide.

Install via Package Manager

Install in Ubuntu directly via apt:

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$ sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

However, it will not give you the latest version. So, use an alternative method.

For Node.js v0.12:

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$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.12 | sudo bash -
$ sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

For io.js v3.x:

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$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_iojs_3.x | sudo bash -
$ sudo apt-get install -y iojs

Install from the Source

Install build tools:

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$ sudo apt-get install -y build-essential

Clone the Node.js repository from GitHub:

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$ git clone https://github.com/nodejs/node.git

Future Node.js releases will be from this repo: https://github.com/nodejs/node.

Check out a specific version:

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$ cd node && git checkout v3.2.0

Install globally:

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$ ./configure && make && sudo make install

io.js v1.6.0 introduces a new command line option: -r or --require, which can be used to pre-load modules at startup, see:

https://github.com/iojs/io.js/blob/v1.x/CHANGELOG.md#2015-03-19-version-160-chrisdickinson

I can think of one interesting use case: overriding the default behavior or console.log to perform deep inspection:

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// console.js
var util = require('util');
var log = console.log;
console.log = function (obj) {
  log(util.inspect(obj, { colors: true, depth: null }));
};

Now I can pre-load this script to have all console log show in better format:

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$ iojs -r /path/to/console.js app.js

Time to find out more use cases.

If you have both Node.js and io.js installed, PM2 will run Node.js by default. To start the app with io.js, use --interpreter flag:

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$ pm2 start app.js --name web --interpreter iojs
[PM2][WARN] We've notice that you are running the node script, but currently
using a iojs interpreter, may be you need inspect the --interpreter option.
[PM2] Process app.js launched
┌──────────┬────┬──────┬──────┬────────┬─────────┬────────┬─────────────┬──────────┐
│ App name │ id │ mode │ pid  │ status │ restart │ uptime │ memory      │ watching │
├──────────┼────┼──────┼──────┼────────┼─────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤
│ web      │ 2  │ fork │ 5074 │ online │ 0       │ 0s     │ 20.172 MB   │ disabled │
└──────────┴────┴──────┴──────┴────────┴─────────┴────────┴─────────────┴──────────┘