Set the permissions so that the group is allowed to write in there and all file will inherit the group # chmod g+ws.Make sure the groupd owner is nvm # chown :nvm.Goto the /opt directory and create a directory called nvm.Add root to the nvm group # usermod -aG nvm root.Create a group called 'nvm', # groupadd nvm.I've done this on a debian 8 machine, as the root user.This is the solution I came up with: (shout out to for the initial version) Some users should be able to install newer versions of node.Every user should be able to select a installed version of node (or use $ nvm exec) Install NVM for Node.js on Ubuntu 20.04 Step 1: Prerequisites Step 2: Update Your System Step 3: Download and Install NVM for Node.js Step 4: Check NVM Version Step 5: Install Node.js through NVM Step 6: Check Node version Step 7: Install Latest LTS Version using -lts Step 8: Install Node.js version 11.NVM should just work in non-interactive sessions.For a time I worked around this by sourcing the nvm script everywhere but that seems to be a somewhat unmaintainable solution.

I needed a global install of NVM because I have some node based cron jobs and a few legacy applications that are rather picky about which version of node they are able to work on.

Install nvm ubuntu