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Hello World - Node.js on RHEL 8

November 15, 2018
Related topics:
Linux
Related products:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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    RHEL 8 setup

    This Hello, World shows how to install and run a package on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. If you haven’t already, download and install RHEL 8, and register it with Red Hat Subscription Management.  If you don’t already have a subscription, a no-cost developer subscription will be created for you when you download through developers.redhat.com.

    Make sure you have the core Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 development tools (make, git, gcc) installed. If you didn’t select Development Tools during installation, install them now:

    $ sudo yum groupinstall ‘Development Tools’
    

    Note: if sudo isn’t enabled for your user ID, see How to enable sudo on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. During system installation, checking the box Make this user administrator enables sudo for your user ID.

     

    Node.js on RHEL 8 Quick Start (TL;DR)

    Install latest Node.js with development libraries

    $ sudo yum module install nodejs/development

     

    Installing Node.js on RHEL 8 

    First, see what Node.js package are available as part of the Application Stream Repository:

    $ sudo yum module list nodejs
    nodejs               10 [d]       common [d], development, minimal, s2i    Javascript runtime
    

    There are several profiles available for the Node.js package. The default is to install a common set of runtime packages.  For developers, using the development profile installs the libraries that enable you to build dynamically loadable modules.

    $ sudo yum module install nodejs/development 
    

    Node.js is now installed.  Check the version and the path:

    $ node -v
    
    $ npm -v 
    
    $ which node 
    /usr/bin/node
    
    $ which npm 
    /usr/bin/npm
    

    Alternatively If you wanted to install only a minimal set of Node.js packages, the command is:

    $ sudo yum module install nodejs/minimal
    

    For an explanation of the above commands, see Working with AppStreams below.

    Node.js on RHEL 8 Hello, World

    Let’s create a Node.js program that can be run from the command line. Using a text editor such as vi, nano, or geditcreate a file named hello.js with the following content:

    hello.js
    #!/usr/bin/node
    console.log("Hello, Red Hat Developer World from Node " + process.version) 
    

    Save it and exit the editor. Run it with the `node` command:

    $ node hello.js
    Hello, Red Hat Developer World from Node v10.11.0
    

    Optionally, make `hello.js` executable:

    $ chmod +x hello.js
    

    Now because the program starts with `#!/usr/bin/node` you can run it directly:

    $ ./hello.js
    

    A web-based Hello, World

    The next step is to try a slightly larger Node.js example that implements a tiny web server. Using your preferred text editor, create a file named hello-http.js with the following content:

    hello-http.js
    
    #!/usr/bin/node
    
    var http = require('http');
    var port = 8000;
    var laddr = '0.0.0.0';
    http.createServer(function (req, res) {
       res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
       res.end('Hello, Red Hat Developer World from ' +
       process.version + '!\n');
       console.log('Processed request for '+ req.url);
    }).listen(port, laddr);
    console.log('Server running at http://' + laddr + ':' + port + '/');
    

    Save it and exit the editor. Then, make it executable:

    $ chmod +x hello-http.js
    

    Now, you can run it:

    $ ./hello-http.js
    Hello, Red Hat Developer World from Node v10.11.0
    
    

    You can use a browser such as Firefox, to connect to the Node.js web server using the URL `http://localhost:8000/`.   Alternatively, you can use `curl` in a different window/terminal tab:

    $ curl http://localhost:8000/
    

    Working with Appstreams

    The first step is to see what modules are available the Applications Streams (appstream) repo:

    $ sudo yum module list  # list all available modules in appstream
    

    Or, find just the modules named `nodejs`

    $ sudo yum module list nodejs
    

    From the output you can see that Node.js 10 is the default module to install, note the `[d]`.  You could have simply typed the following to install the default nodejs module.

    $ sudo yum module install nodejs
    

    Or even, shorter using ‘@’:

    $ sudo yum install @nodejs
    

    The above commands would have installed the nodejs with the default profile. A profile is group, usually a subset, of the packages in a module.  For this module the default profile is named `default. In the steps above, the `development` profile was chosen to get the packages in the development profile installed.

    To find out more about a module, use one of the following commands:

    $ yum module info nodejs  # get info about the default nodejs module
    
    $ yum module info nodejs:10   # get info about a specific module stream
    
    Last updated: November 19, 2020
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