VIVAHATE

Node.js on Mac OS X

Installation

First, install Mac OS X and Xcode. Install Homebrew:

$ sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local
$ curl -Lsf http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/tarball/master | tar xz
  --strip 1 -C/usr/local

Install Node.js and Express:

$ brew install node
$ brew install npm
$ npm install express

Add the following to ~/.bash_profile:

export NODE_PATH="/usr/local/lib/node/"

You can verify that NODE_PATH has been set correctly by running the node program and inspecting require.paths. You should see something like this:

$ node
> require.paths
[ '/usr/local/lib/node/'
, '/Users/kyle/.node_libraries'
, '/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.2.3/lib/node'
]
> require('express');
{ version: '1.0.0rc3'
, Server:
   { [Function: Server]
     super_: { [Function: Server] super_: [Object] } }
, createServer: [Function]
}

Sample Program

Test it out. Put the following in a file named test.js:

var express = require('express');

var app = express.createServer();

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.send('Hello World');
});

app.listen(3000);

Run It

Run using node:

$ node test.js

And visit http://localhost:3000/ in your browser.

Up Next…

Here’s what we’ll be building in the next post: