n mit Homebrew, MacPorts installieren

Projektlinks

• Homepage
• Upstream-Dokumentation
• Paketmanager-Seite

Befehle und Aliase

• n

Projektgeschichte

The project is implemented primarily as shell code and distributed through npm, Homebrew, MacPorts, and direct script installation. Release v10.2.0 was published on GitHub on May 21, 2025 and is also the stable Homebrew version. The project has continued to adapt to Node ecosystem changes, including LTS aliases, package.json engine resolution, custom mirrors, alternate architectures, and preservation of npm/corepack during Node installs.

Adoptionsgeschichte

n has broad practical adoption among developers who want a simpler alternative to shell-integrating version managers. The GitHub API showed 19,516 stars and 764 forks on July 1, 2026. npm reported 1,667,021 downloads for May 30, 2026 through June 28, 2026, and Homebrew reported 9,495 installs in the preceding 365 days. Those numbers reflect different distribution channels: npm is the dominant installation path, while Homebrew remains a convenient macOS/Linux route.

Wie es verwendet wird

The common workflow is `n lts`, `n latest`, or `n 20` to install and switch Node, with bare `n` opening the interactive selector over cached versions. Package nerds use `n run`, `n exec`, and `n which` when they need to run commands under a cached Node without changing the active install. The `engine` label is useful in repos that declare a Node range in package.json, while `N_NODE_MIRROR`, `N_ARCH`, `--offline`, and `--cleanup` cover mirrors, architecture-specific downloads, air-gapped/cache use, and container one-shot installs.

Warum Paket-Nerds sich dafür interessieren

n matters because it is intentionally narrow: it manages Node versions without trying to own the whole shell session or project environment. That makes it especially handy on CI images, disposable containers, remote shells, and machines where a global Node install is acceptable. The tradeoff is also the reason people still compare it with nvm/fnm/asdf/Volta: n changes the active installed Node rather than providing per-directory shims by default.

Zeitleiste

• 2011-01-05: GitHub repository and npm package created.
• 2025-05-21: v10.2.0 published on GitHub.
• 2026-05-30 to 2026-06-28: npm reported 1,667,021 downloads.
• 2026-07-01: GitHub API showed 19,516 stars and Homebrew API showed 9,495 installs over 365 days.

Related projects

• Node.js
• npm
• nvm
• fnm
• Volta
• asdf

Quellen

• https://api.github.com/repos/tj/n
• https://api.npmjs.org/downloads/point/last-month/n
• https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/n.json
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/n
• https://github.com/tj/n
• https://github.com/tj/n/releases
• https://registry.npmjs.org/n