I’ll introduce how to fix the issue where nvm cannot be installed and displays the message You have $NVM_DIR set to “/Users/yourname/.nvm”, but that directory does not exist.

Problem) nvm Cannot Be Installed

From Install & Update script | creationix/nvm: Node Version Manager, even when running the nvm installation script as follows, the message You have $NVM_DIR set to “/Users/yourname/.nvm”, but that directory does not exist. Check your profile files and environment. was displayed and it wasn’t installed.

$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 13226  100 13226    0     0   113k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  114k
You have $NVM_DIR set to "/Users/yourname/.nvm", but that directory does not exist. Check your profile files and environment.

Cause) Environment Variable NVM_DIR

The cause was that a value was set in the environment variable NVM_DIR.

$ echo $NVM_DIR
/Users/yourname/.nvm

Solution) Empty the Environment Variable NVM_DIR

Empty the environment variable NVM_DIR.

NVM_DIR=

$ echo $NVM_DIR

When I ran the nvm installation script again, I was able to successfully install nvm.

$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 13226  100 13226    0     0  52131      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 52276
=> Downloading nvm from git to '/Users/yourname/.nvm'
=> Cloning into '/Users/yourname/.nvm'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 278, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (278/278), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (249/249), done.
remote: Total 278 (delta 33), reused 93 (delta 16), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (278/278), 142.36 KiB | 24.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (33/33), done.
=> Compressing and cleaning up git repository

=> Appending nvm source string to /Users/yourname/.zshrc
=> Appending bash_completion source string to /Users/yourname/.zshrc
=> Close and reopen your terminal to start using nvm or run the following to use it now:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \\. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \\. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion

That’s all from the Gemba on being troubled by not being able to install nvm.