Installing Node.js

The first thing you need to do to start using NPM is download Node.js. Node is an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime. It is not a new language or a new syntax; it's just the platform where you can write JavaScript code outside the browser and Node.js will use the power of Google's V8 JavaScript Engine to execute it.

If you're using OS X or Windows, the best way to install Node.js is to use one of the installers from the Node.js download page.

If you're using Linux, you can use your package manager or check the download page to see whether there's a more recent version that works with your system.

To check whether you have a previous version installed, run the following command:

$ node –v