[Discuss] node.js and npm on Debian?

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Kent Borg <kentborg at borg.org> asks:
> But I can't figure out how to install npm. When I search for
> installation instructions they all seem to want me to pipe a curl
> command into a sudo bash. Huh? That's scary as hell.

Let others do the installation for you: my go-to technology for this is
Docker. First get docker installed
(https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/debian/). Then look for the
official containerized release of node here:
https://hub.docker.com/r/library/node/. Choose which versions of Node and
Debian that you want (look among the available tags); example 8.9.4 on
stretch. To run it, really all you need to type is this:

 docker run -d --name nodejs node:latest sleep 7d
 docker exec -it nodejs bash

You'll be at a shell prompt that includes Node.JS and npm. You can use the
"--volume" parameter to map a working directory into the container and to map
the modules you decide to install (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm), enabling
you to edit files on your host and work with them at the container's bash
prompt. Docker's drop-dead simple to learn, and it solves so many of these
installation headaches.

-rich