path: root/src/node/NOTES.md

## Using nvm from postCreateCommand or another lifecycle command

Certain operations like `postCreateCommand` run non-interactive, non-login shells. Unfortunately, `nvm` is really particular that it needs to be "sourced" before it is used, which can only happen automatically with interactive and/or login shells. Fortunately, this is easy to work around:

Just can source the `nvm` startup script before using it:

```json
"postCreateCommand": ". ${NVM_DIR}/nvm.sh && nvm install --lts"
```

Note that typically the default shell in these cases is `sh` not `bash`, so use `. ${NVM_DIR}/nvm.sh` instead of `source ${NVM_DIR}/nvm.sh`.

Alternatively, you can start up an interactive shell which will in turn source `nvm`:

```json
"postCreateCommand": "bash -i -c 'nvm install --lts'"
```