How to run multiple node versions side by side

This is going to be a quick tutorial on how to run multiple node versions side by side. There are many different ways to do it but this works well for me.

First I compile node versions from source and I set them up in the following directory structure:

/home/pkrumins/installs/node-v0.8.20
/home/pkrumins/installs/node-v0.8.21
/home/pkrumins/installs/node-v0.10.3
/home/pkrumins/installs/node-v0.10.22

When compiling node I simply specify --prefix=/home/pkrumins/installs/node-vVERSION, and make install installs it into that path.

Next I've this bash alias:

function chnode {
  local node_path="/home/pkrumins/installs/node-v$1/bin"
  test -z "$1" && echo "usage: chnode <node version>" && return
  test ! -d "$node_path" && echo "node version $1 doesn't exist" && return
  PATH=$node_path:$PATH
}

Now when I want to run node 0.8.21, I run chnode 0.8.21 to update the path:

$ chnode 0.8.21
$ which node
/home/pkrumins/installs/node-v0.8.21/bin/node
$ node --version
v0.8.21

Or if I want to run node 0.6.18, I run chnode 0.6.18:

$ chnode 0.6.18
$ which node
/home/pkrumins/installs/node-v0.6.18/bin/node
$ node --version
v0.6.18

Works for me both locally and in production. Until next time.