Uninstall Node.JS using Linux command line?

Question

How do you uninstall node.js using the cmd line in linux?

Answer 1

For Ubuntu 12.04:

sudo apt-get remove nodejs

This will uninstall nodejs as well as npm.

• vijay: now these are the kind of answers i like... simple and to the point. thanks a bunch! worked like a charm for Ubuntu 12.04
• teewuane: This didn't remove the .nmp directory in my home directory ~. I removed it myself. Are there any other files or directories like that I need to remove to completely remove node and npm?
• irl_irl: I had to run sudo apt-get -f install before running the remove command. Afterwards, it was removed successfully.
• aero: Worked for me on Lubunto 16.04. Woot!
• Kdwk: Note to users new to Linux: replace 'apt-get' in the above command with 'dnf' if you are using Fedora/ Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Answer 2

Edit: If you know which package manager was used to install, it is best to uninstall with the same package manager. Examples for apt, make, yum are in other answers.

This is a manual approach:

Running which node will return something like /path/bin/node.

Then run cd /path

This is all that is added by Node.JS.

rm -r bin/node bin/node-waf include/node lib/node lib/pkgconfig/nodejs.pc share/man/man1/node.1

Now the only thing I don't know about is npm and what it has installed. If you install npm again into a custom path that starts off empty, then you can see what it adds and then you will be able to make a list for npm similar to the above list I made for node.

• T04435: You must know that Nodejs has npm as well if you do this you will end up with a mess to unistall npm or aany other package you install using it
• sethreidnz: Some people might need to run which nodejs as I did in Ubuntu
• Ankur Shah: I did the same, now when I do node -v it shows nothing but the file and folder remains there under folder node. So its not removed fully!!
• Paul Allsopp: @Jubair You cannot remove npm if you've already removed node, because npm needs node to run.
• Lucky Brain: Removing a folder is, at least, dangerous and it doesn't guarantee the clean removal of a product. I would recommend avoiding applying this answer unless you have removed the product first and you find it leaves some files behind. You can remove the product cleanly by using the corresponding command as it has been explained in other answers of this thread.

Answer 3

If you installed from source, you can issue the following command:

sudo make uninstall

If you followed the instructions on https://github.com/nodejs/node/wiki to install to your $HOME/local/node, then you have to type the following before the line above:

./configure --prefix=$HOME/local/node

• abe: will that remove npm and its installs?
• Justin Ethier: Probably not. You are better off running npm uninstall npm to uninstall npm prior to uninstalling node.
• abe: thats really odd it seemed to uninstall a bunch of files said it uninstalled but when i type node it still enters node mode...i rebooted the server to in case it was in ram
• Justin Ethier: Hmm... do you have to specify an installation prefix, to uninstall a version in a custom place such as your local home directory?
• Ghominejad: If you'd removed sources and you have a fresh one, you need to run ./configure then sudo make uninstall. if you didn't specify --prefix you don't need --prefix now

Answer 4

Sorry the answer of George Bailey does work very fine when you want absolutely remove the node from your machine.

This answer is referred from : @tedeh https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/issues/486

If you wanna install a new version of node you have to use the code below

sudo rm -rf /var/cache/yum
sudo yum remove -y nodejs
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/nodesource*
sudo yum clean all

And add new nodejs version to "yum" an new version of node

#using this command for Node version 8
curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo bash -
#using this command for Node version 10
curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo bash -

Install nodejs

sudo yum -y install nodejs

I hope it gonna help you guy!!!

• ourmandave: This works! Forgotten I'd installed it with yum. yum list installed | grep nodejs to check. +1
• P Marecki: confirmed to be good on removing node 10, and installing node 12 on centos 7
• Catalin Halic: You saved my day! :)
• Nithin: i tried with running this curl --silent --location rpm.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo bash - and sudo yum -y install nodejs commands, but the installed version was v6.17.1 it was not 12

Answer 5

To uninstall node I followed the accepted answer by @George, as I no longer have the sources, but before doing so I ran:

sudo npm rm npm -g

That seemed to get rid of npm from the system directories such as /usr/bin/npm and /usr/lib/npm. I got the command from here. I then found a ~/.npm directory, which I deleted manually. Honestly I don't know if every trace of npm has been removed, but I can't find anything else.

Answer 6

If you installed node using curl + yum:

sudo curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | bash -
sudo yum -y install nodejs

Then you can remove it using yum:

sudo yum remove nodejs

Note that using the curl script causes the wrong version of node to be installed. There is a bug that causes node v6.7 to be installed instead of v4.x intended by the path (../setup_4.x) used in the curl script.

Answer 7

This is better to remove NodeJS and its modules manually because installation leaves a lot of files, links and modules behind and later it create problems while we reconfigure another version of NodeJS and its modules. Run the following commands.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/local/share/man/man1/node* /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d ~/.npm ~/.node-gyp /opt/local/bin/node opt/local/include/node /opt/local/lib/node_modules 
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node* 
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node* 
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/node*

and this done.

A step by step guide with commands is at http://amcositsupport.blogspot.in/2016/07/to-completely-uninstall-node-js-from.html

This helped me resolve my problem.

• scader: This helped remove an older, orphaned version of npm. Helpful to also run hash -r afterwards.

Answer 8

I think Manoj Gupta had the best answer from what I'm seeing. However, the remove command doesn't get rid of any configuration folders or files that may be leftover. Use:

sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove nodejs

The purge command should remove the package and then clean up any configuration files. (see this question for more info on the difference between purge and remove). The auto-remove flag will do the same for packages that were installed by NodeJS.

See the accepted answer on this question for a better explanation.

Although don't forget to handle NPM! Josh's answer covers that.

• abe: Is apt-get Linux only?

Answer 9

The answer of George Bailey works fine. I would just add the following flags and use sudo if needed:

 sudo rm -rf bin/node bin/node-waf include/node lib/node lib/pkgconfig/nodejs.pc share/man/man1/node

• Big Rich: I found an official rm -rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/npm* removal command @ https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/removing-npm, I'm not sure if it's logically equivalent to your command, I'll try it though (it might require a sudo, too).
• Gurjit: On ubuntu 14.04 sudo apt-get remove nodejs helps me to sort out this problem.
• kqvanity: @BigRich I'm not quite sure what you mean by "logically", but your bygone reference, expands to totally different directories. He should've explicitly prefixed the directories with a forward slash too or directory of some kind.
• Big Rich: @polendina, been 7 years, instead of 'logically' I probably meant simply 'not exactly the same as'. As you state, my command, directly from NPMJS themselves, expands to a different set of directory locations, for a NodeJS installation relative to /usr/local. I believe that the OP, and others of a technical standard sufficient to consider the installation and subsequent removal of NodeJS from their systems, would in fact be able to 'tweak' the command I offered in good faith, to the particular needs and layout of their own system(s), as to not use it 'blindly' - I offered a 'hint'.

Answer 10

if you want to just update node, there's a neat updater too

https://github.com/creationix/nvm

to use,

git clone git://github.com/creationix/nvm.git ~/.nvm

source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

nvm install v0.4.1

Answer 11

I think this works, at least partially (have not investigated): nvm uninstall <VERSION_TO_UNINSTALL> eg:

nvm uninstall 4.4.5

Answer 12

If you have yum you could do:

yum remove nodesource-release* nodejs

yum clean all

And after that check if its deleted:

rpm -qa 'node|npm'

Answer 13

after installing using the "ROCK-SOLID NODE.JS PLATFORM ON UBUNTU" script, i get this output. Which tells you how to uninstall nodejs.

Done. The new package has been installed and saved to

/tmp/node-install/node-v0.8.19/nodejs_0.8.19-1_i386.deb

You can remove it from your system anytime using:

 dpkg -r nodejs

• Shail: Worked with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as well

Answer 14

Best way to go around this is to do it right from the BEGINNING:

INSTALL BREW

#HERE IS HOW: PASTE IN TERMINAL
sudo apt-get install build-essential curl git m4 ruby texinfo libbz2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libexpat-dev libncurses-dev zlib1g-dev
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/linuxbrew/go/install)"

Then at the end of your .bashrc file(In your home directory press Ctrl + H)

export PATH="$HOME/.linuxbrew/bin:$PATH"
export MANPATH="$HOME/.linuxbrew/share/man:$MANPATH"
export INFOPATH="$HOME/.linuxbrew/share/info:$INFOPATH"

Then restart terminal so the modification to .bashrc are reloaded

TO INSTALL NODE

brew install node

TO CHECK VERSION

node -v
npm -v

TO UPDATE NODE

brew update
brew upgrade node

TO UNINSTALL NODE

brew uninstall node

• T04435: Follow the first steps to install it. Then added to the path
• T04435: Brew as a terminal command can be used in OSX or Linux based systems. The only difference between the two system is that brew the original is for OSX and LinuxBrew is a version of it for Linux. The one I'm talking here is LinuxBrew. So once more if you follow the instructions you could use it in Linux based systems. Thanks
• kqvanity: I'm not sure about installing an additional package manager that might cause conflict by overwriting the same directories, or outright be nullified by its low priority in its binaries invocation, behind the formerly dangling node/npm versions. Anyways, OP is asking for explicit removal solution, not a workaround!

Answer 15

To Remove nodejs installed in centos 8: From your home directory, run the below command

sudo yum remove nodejs

Enter y to confirm your command

• b10n1k: you do not need to the home directory FYI. And try to elaborate a bit further to make your answer more explanatory
• Community: Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

Answer 16

In addition to apt or yum removal, clean any residual files to avoid conflicts if you ever install a new version:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/npm 
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/man/man1/node* 
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d 
sudo rm -rf ~/.npm 
sudo rm -rf ~/.node-gyp 
sudo rm -rf /opt/local/bin/node 
sudo rm -rf opt/local/include/node 
sudo rm -rf /opt/local/lib/node_modules 
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/node*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/node*

Answer 17

For Centos 7 and 8

Remove NodeJS

sudo yum remove -y nodejs
sudo rm -rf /var/cache/yum
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/nodesource*
sudo yum clean all

Remove residual files

whereis node
sudo rm -rfv /usr/bin/node /usr/local/bin/node /usr/share/man/man1/node.1.gz
sudo rm -rfv /usr/bin/npm /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/share/man/man1/npm.1.gz
sudo rm -rfv /usr/local/bin/npx
sudo rm -rfv /usr/local/lib/node*
sudo rm -rfv /usr/local/include/node*
sudo rm -rfv /usr/lib/node_modules/

Answer 18

In Linux Debian 11:

$ sudo apt remove nodejs

For my case, I wanted to remove both nodejs and npm:

$ sudo apt remove nodejs npm

Answer 19

Just remove these files. No need to do anything else.

rm -rf ~/.nvm
rm -rf ~/.npm
rm -rf ~/.bower

Answer 20

for Linux Debian I wanted to remove node , npm and nvm so I did

nvm uninstall v14.21.3. Do same for each version and do nvm deactivate and then uninstall the currently used version

in /home/user directory (that is where nvm was installed for me)

rm -rf node_modules

rm -rf .npm

rm -rf .npmrc ( you can leave this but I removed it)

rm -rf .nvm

sudo nano .bashrc and then remove these lines

 export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" # This loads nvm bash_completion

Answer 21

Another take:

sudo apt remove nodejs
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/node_modules/npm
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules/
sudo rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/npm-*
sudo rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/npm.1
sudo rm -f /usr/share/man/man5/npm-*
sudo rm -f /usr/share/man/man5/npmrc.5
sudo rm -rf /root/.npm
rm -rf $HOME/.npm
rm -rf $HOME/.node_repl_history

From there, if you have locate installed:

sudo updatedb
locate -i "npm" | grep -v ignore | grep -v opam

nodejs and npm are uninstalled.