Question

some time ago I have installed node.js on my Ubuntu system. with the following steps (dump of my history):

309  git clone git://github.com/joyent/node.git
310  cd node/
311  ./configure 
312  make
313  ls -l
314  node
315  sudo make install

My Version is v0.3.2-pre.

Please, is there a clean way to get a new version by uninstall/install or upgrade? I have not much experience with make or git.

Thanks

Answer 1

Do the exact same thing again. The new binary will be copied over the old one.

• git clone creates a copy of git repository node’s source code is in
• cd node/ changes directory to the one you just created with those files
• ./configure checks for dependencies and creates a makefile
• make executes that makefile, which results in compiling the source code into binary executable(s), libraries and any other outputs
• ls -l lists the files in the current directory
• node runs the node binary executable you just compiled from source, to ensure the compilation was successful
• sudo make install copies the files you just created from the current directory to their permanent homes, /usr/local/bin and such

The last step overwrites whatever’s already there with what you just built.