Ansible install node with nvm

Question

I'm looking for a way to install a given version of node via ansible and nvm, the installation of nvm is working as expected because if I connect with the root user, I can execute the command nvm install 8.11.3 but this same command doesn't work with Ansible, I don't understand why.

---
- name: Install nvm
  git: repo=https://github.com/creationix/nvm.git dest=~/.nvm version=v0.33.11
  tags: nvm

- name: Source nvm in ~/.{{ item }}
  lineinfile: >
      dest=~/.{{ item }}
      line="source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh"
      create=yes
  tags: nvm
  with_items:
    - bashrc
    - profile

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: nvm install 8.11.3
...

error log

TASK [node : Install node and set version] *************************************************************************************
    fatal: [51.15.128.164]: FAILED! => {"changed": true, "cmd": "nvm install 8.11.3", "delta": "0:00:00.005883", "end": "2018-12-03 15:05:10.394433", "msg": "non-zero return code", "rc": 127, "start": "2018-12-03 15:05:10.388550", "stderr": "/bin/sh: 1: nvm: not found", "stderr_lines": ["/bin/sh: 1: nvm: not found"], "stdout": "", "stdout_lines": []}
        to retry, use: --limit .../.../ansible/stater-debian/playbook.retry

Answer 1

I think the clue in the output you need is:

"/bin/sh: 1: nvm: not found"

To run a command without including the full path to that command (ie nvm rather than /the/dir/nvm/is/installed/in/nvm ), then the directory that contains the command, must be in the $PATH environment variable for the shell that runs the command.

In this case it looks like that is not present for the shell that Ansible spawns, versus the shell your interactive commands run in. Change:

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: nvm install 8.11.3

to

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: /full/path/to/nvm install 8.11.3

If you don't know what to put in place of '/full/path/to', try either:

which nvm

or

find / -name nvm

Answer 2

It's okay, here's the configuration that works

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: "source /root/.nvm/nvm.sh && nvm install 8.11.3" 
  args:
    executable: /bin/bash

Answer 3

I will just post under here, because there are hundreds of these posts.

- name: Install node
    become: true
    become_user: root
    shell: "source /root/.nvm/nvm.sh && nvm install {{ personal_node_version }} && nvm alias default {{ personal_node_version }}"                                 
    args:
      executable: /bin/bash

worked for me.

Answer 4

This worked for me on Ubuntu 20.04 using nvm version 0.39.1:

- name: Install NVM
  shell: >
    curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
  args:
    creates: "/root/.nvm/nvm.sh"

  - name: Install Node Versions
    shell: ". /root/.bashrc && nvm install {{item}}"
    with_items: 
      - 'v10.24.1'
      - 'v16.17.0'
      - '--lts'
      - 'node'

Answer 5

Based on all the posts found on stack and tweaked a little for my own needs - I found this solution worked perfectly for both installing NVM (the easy part) and creating a loop that allows you to insert 1 or many versions of Node as needed

# test if nvm has been installed by the user desired
- stat:
      path: /home/yournonrootuser/.nvm
  register: nvm_path

- name: Setup NodeVersionManager and install node version
  become: yes
  # Execute config files such as .profile (Ansible uses non-interactive login shells)
  become_flags: -i 
  become_user: yournonrootuser 
  block:
    - name: Install nvm
      shell: >
        curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | bash 
      args:
        executable: /bin/bash
        chdir: "$HOME"
        creates: "$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"

    - name: Setup .profile of yournonrootuser
      lineinfile:
        path: ~/.profile
        # This will make sure Node is on the users PATH
        line: source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh 
        create: yes
      become_flags: -i  
  when: nvm_path.stat.exists  == false 

  # if we got here we already know node version manager is installed
- name: installing node versions using loop
  command: sudo -iu yournonrootuser nvm install {{item}}
  args:
    executable: /bin/bash
    chdir: "$HOME"
    creates: "$HOME/.nvm/versions/node/v{{item}}"
  loop:
    - 14.18.3