[Suggestion]about NVM_SYMLINK

[SetsuikiHyoryu]

I suggest adding a note in the documentation that specifies the NVM_SYMLINK path needs to be manually created if it doesn't exist. The program doesn't create it automatically (other programs usually create the path specified by the user during the installation process).

I encountered an issue where I successfully installed Node using nvm install, but after running nvm use and then nvm current, it displayed a message saying Node was not set. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting and finally realized that it was because the path specified by NVM_SYMLINK had not been automatically created.

[coreybutler]

NVM_SYMLINK is created during the installation process. Did you use the official installer?

Run nvm debug to track down common PATH issues.

[SetsuikiHyoryu]

Thank you for your answer. I am using version 1.1.11 of nvm-setup.exe downloaded from this repository. However, my NVM_SYMLINK is not using the default C:\Program Files\Nodejs.

Here is the result of my nvm debug command. It was displaying the same (just no node.js version information) before I created folder manually. I also tried administrative rights.

❯ nvm debug
Hyoryu is not using admin or elevated rights.

PowerShell 7.3.2
Windows Developer Mode: UNKNOWN (user cannot read registry)

NVM4W Version:      1.1.11
NVM4W Path:         E:\SOFT\programming\package-manage\nvm\nvm.exe
NVM4W Settings:     E:\SOFT\programming\package-manage\nvm\settings.txt
NVM_HOME:           E:\SOFT\programming\package-manage\nvm
NVM_SYMLINK:        E:\SOFT\programming\programming-language\javascript\nodejs
Node Installations: E:\SOFT\programming\package-manage\nvm

Active Node.js Version: v16.3.0

No problems detected.

Find help at https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows/wiki/Common-Issues

[Marck36]

Hi, i got stuck in the same situation, spending some hours on the problem i find out that when using the command 'nvm use ' on my machine (that is a company's computer) it don't give me the privileges needed to do this task.
The problem is: on MVN version 1.1.11 when you run the 'use' command the feedback is that it successfully changed to the node version you specified but when running the 'node -v' command it isn't recognized, so i changed to MVN version 1.1.9 to see if was a version problem, then following the same steps it came to the same thing, but now it gives a better feedback, it says you don't have the privileges to do the path change.
Now knowing the root of the problem what i did was write a ps1 script that changes the path of the nodejs 'NVM_SYMLINK' on windows path variables after i change the node version by MVN.

[Marck36]

param(
    [string]$version
)

# Define o caminho da variável NVM_SYMLINK
$nvmdir = "$env:APPDATA\nvm\v$version"

# Define a variável de ambiente NVM_SYMLINK
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("NVM_SYMLINK", $nvmdir, "User")

# Exibe a confirmação
Write-Host "###### NVM_SYMLINK foi configurada com sucesso." -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "# .... Version: $version" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host "# .... Path: $nvmdir" -ForegroundColor Cyan

Import-Module $env:ChocolateyInstall\helpers\chocolateyProfile.psm1
refreshenv

# How use:
# RUN: nvm install 12.22.12
# RUN: .\nvm.ps1 -version 12.22.12
# RUN: nvm use 12.22.12
# RUN: node -v

[ykfq]

Found the right way to setup nvm-noinstall package without the NVM_SYMLINK trouble:

• unzip nvm-noinstall.zip to anywhere, eg: C:\Users\bob\Apps\nvm
• open powershell and run C:\Users\bob\Apps\nvm\install.cmd
• paste C:\Users\bob\Apps\nvm after the propmt
• open powershell or cmd and run nvm install 22 lts to install the LTS version of nodejs 22

Note, if you are none admin user, you shoul change:

• edit install.cmd and change setx /M to setx
• edit install.cmd and change set NVM_SYMLINK=C:\Program Files\nodejs to set NVM_SYMLINK=%NVM_PATH%\nodejs
• nvm use will not work, run mklink /J nodejs v20.19.5 in cmd in the C:\Users\bob\Apps\nvm directory