Feature suggestion: n uninstall

[shadowspawn]

Suggestion

I propose n uninstall removes the active version of node and npm installed by n. e.g. for default install location:

• rm -f /usr/local/bin/node
• rm -f /usr/local/bin/npm
• rm -f /usr/local/bin/npx
• et al

I think this would be useful in various scenarios:

• temporarily reverting to a system install of node (assuming one exists)
• deleting node and npm because no longer using
• cleaning out n installed node and npm because trying another way of managing them
• cleaning out node and npm because broken, before trying a different install

History

This has come up multiple times. See #127 #169 PR #173 #238 #327 #441 #486

Three different things often get discussed or mixed together: uninstalling n, uninstalling the active version of node, and deleting the downloaded cached versions of node. I am suggesting n uninstall only does the middle case as they are useful separate operations and there are already simple commands for doing the other two flavours:

• uninstall n: e.g. npm uninstall -g n
• remove cached downloaded versions: e.g. n prune (all but one) or rm -rf /usr/local/n(all)

On a related note, the third party installer n-install has n-uninstall which does all three uninstall cases at once.

Other syntax considered, but I didn't like as much as uninstall:

• n system (Simple command to switch back to the system installation of Node #486 How to uninstall n? #169)
• n none (PR Selectable None #173)

Uninstall References and Implementation

Personally I initially didn't like the idea of implementing this because n installs using the nodejs distribution and does not use much specific knowledge of the layout. But it is a commonly requested feature, and it is a bit of a pain to delete manually. Two example links are:

• https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/removing-npm
• https://stackabuse.com/how-to-uninstall-node-js-from-mac-osx/

I propose the implementation should use fixed knowledge of the target locations rather than consult a particular cached version, not least because you are likely to have installed multiple versions over time, and may have deleted the cached version.

I propose the implementation only deletes the files and folders n may have installed, and not other related things like global npm and node modules. I think just undoing the things that n was used for is simpler and safer.

[shadowspawn]

Proposed uninstall steps for default install to /usr/local:

rm -f "/usr/local/bin/node"
rm -f "/usr/local/bin/npm"
rm -f "/usr/local/bin/npx"
rm -rf "/usr/local/include/node"
rm -rf  "/usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d"
rm -rf "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm"
rm -rf "/usr/local/share/doc/node"
rm -rf "/usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1"
rm -rf "/usr/local/share/systemtap/tapset/node.stp"

[FranklinYu]

How about /usr/local/n/?

[shadowspawn]

@FranklinYu
Thanks. I deliberately left that out. See the History section in my first comment. (I have fixed a typo where I referred to /usr/local/nvh/ instead of /usr/local/n/.)

[FranklinYu]

The typo was why I asked. Nevertheless, rm -rf /usr/local/n isn’t a simple command. It is only as simple as any command in your proposal.

[shadowspawn]

Added in v4.1.0