Make a symbolic link to directory of current version of node

[zodiacg]

Feature request.

Is it possible to make a symbolic link to directory of current version of node?
For example, ~/.nvm/current --> ~/.nvm/versions/node/0.12.2/. It's really useful for OSX users using GUI applications.

nvm works perfect under command line. But it's difficult to setup environment variables for GUI applications under OSX. Before Yosemite, we can use /etc/launchd.conf. In Yosemite, we have to use a more complicated method (see Stack Overflow).
In both methods, it requires a reboot or restart of GUI application to for EV's changes to take effect.
nvm now changes $PATH when changing versions of node. The changes won't take effect for GUI applications.

My solution now is:
I created a symbolic link to the directory of current version of node, like ~/.nvm/current. Then I add Users/XXX/.nvm/current/bin to $PATH for GUI applications. When changing versions, I changes the symbolic link. So the version change will take effect immediately for GUI applications.

Here's a example.

IMHO, it also makes $PATH looks nicer.

[ljharb]

Nope, this doesn't make any sense for nvm. nvm is for having different node versions in multiple shell sessions at the same time - a symlink totally breaks this.

IDEs simply can't work well with it unless they can invoke a shell session and source nvm.sh themselves. For that, you want n or a normal system-installed node.

[zodiacg]

No, I'm not suggesting changing the basic mechanism of nvm. I'm suggesting adding the symbolic link, not setting $PATH to it.
nvm can add a subcommand to manage the symlink. GUI applications will benefit from this for it will make version changes without restart the app possible.

[ljharb]

This sounds like ln -s ~/.nvm/current "$(nvm which 0.10)" might solve it for you without any changes in nvm. Adding nvm commands just to manage ln -s for users seems like it might be overkill?

[zodiacg]

Maybe I'm just too lazy to type more commands every time I use nvm to change versions 😄
I'll try writing a shell function to do the work.

[ljharb]

Having a global symlink makes sense, but tying it to nvm use is the thing that's utterly incompatible with nvm.