Nodejs / npm install global packages as normal user

This guide allows to set up npm/node so that npm install -g can be run as a normal user. This is useful to install command-line tools that should be available across multiple projects.
Based on this stackoverflow answer.

• mkdir ~/.npm-packages to create a directory to put global packages
• Create ~/.npmrc with content prefix=~/.npm-packages
• Add to ~/.bashrc:
  • NPM_PACKAGES="~/.npm-packages"
  • NODE_PATH="${NPM_PACKAGES}/lib/node_modules:${NODE_PATH}"
  • PATH="${NPM_PACKAGES}/bin:${PATH}"
  • if command -v manpath > /dev/null ; then MANPATH="$(manpath)" ; fi. Put this before any $MANPATH modification
  • MANPATH="${NPM_PACKAGES}/share/man:${MANPATH}"

Install more recent version of node and npm

Once the above set up is done, it can be used to install a more recent version of node and npm for the current user, compared to what is available on the system (e.g. from official repository).

• Do the steps above
• Reload bash configuration (source ~/.bashrc) or open a new terminal
• Make sure that some version of node/npm is available on the system:
  • Option 1: install from official repositories
  • Option 2: download from official website and copy files where appropriate
• npm install -g npm@latest
• npm install -g n
• N_PREFIX=~/.node n {version to install (e.g. lts)}
• Add installed version to a folder that is in $PATH, e.g. ln -s ~/.node/bin/node ~/.local/bin/
• Reload bash configuration (source ~/.bashrc) or open a new terminal
• (Optional) Remove system-installed version