TL;DR

With ASDF, you can manage version of Node, Yarn, PNPM, PHP, Python, and more than 400 other tools, languages and binaries.

1. Uninstall nvm
2. Install asdf

3. Install nodejs plugin for asdf

   Add legacy_version_file = yes to ~/.asdfrc file

4. Install gnupg

5. Install global Node version using asdf install nodejs lts

   Set is as global default using asdf global nodejs lts

6. Open your project folder and install Node version mentioned in .nvmrc using asdf install

   When you open this folder again, asdf will set this version automatically

Detailed manual

1. Uninstall nvm

No need to remove all installed Node versions one-by-one. They all are placed in ~/.nvm folder, so just remove it:

$ cd ~
$ rm -rf .nvm .nvmrc

Then, remove NVM initiation scripts from your .bashrc / .zshrc / etc.

Find this line:

export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

You may have a Deeper Shell Integration script to install Node version as you cd into a folder.

To ensure NVM is successfully uninstalled, just find any nvm words into your run configurations.

To test NVM is properly uninstalled, just open a new terminal session and you should do not have any errors or warnings related to NVM.

Also, Node is not in your $PATH now, and you should see following in your command line:

$ node -v
command not found: node

2. Install asdf

Open "Download asdf" section of "Getting Started" page on asdf-vm.com and copy installation line. When this instruction was written, there was the following:

git clone https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf.git ~/.asdf --branch v0.8.1

You may have a different version since asdf will be updated in future.

Then, add initiating script to your .bashrc / .zshrc:

. $HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh

3. Install nodejs plugin for asdf

asdf plugin add nodejs https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-nodejs.git

To allow using old .nvmrc files, add legacy_version_file = yes to ~/.asdfrc file

4. To start downloading Node you have to install gnupg

For macOS, simplest way is to install it using Homebrew, like this:

$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
(it takes some time to install Homebrew)
$ brew install gnupg
(it takes some time too)

For Ubuntu, you already have all requirements to use asdf.

5. Install global Node version

asdf syntax to install a tool versions is asdf install <plugin name> <version>, so run following:

asdf install nodejs lts

Then, set is as global default:

asdf global nodejs lts

After this, you can use Node again

$ node -v
v16.13.1

6. Install Node for your project

Open your project folder and run:

asdf install

Ready to go.

When you open this folder again, asdf will set this version automatically.

Further Reading

ASDF has a lot of plugins to install and manage versions of many tools, check out Central plugin repository for asdf

Probably you want to use one of this plugins after installing Node:

• yarn (yarn v1 only)
• pnpm