I needed an updated node.js on my WSL … for some reason ubuntu 20 has quite an old version.

First, as sudo, I removed all the old versions to avoid any conflicts:

apt purge nodejs
apt auto-remove

The purge command completely removes it, while the autoremove removes any dependencies. That should be optional, because those should work once we install the new node.js versions, but YMMV.

Next, install the node.js installer, called nvm for node version manager

To begin, set up your install location. For a single install it should be in ~/.nvm but for a site-wide install, you might want to install nvm in /usr/local/nvm.

Put these lines in your ~/.bashrc

export NVM_ROOT_DIR=$HOME/.nvm
# export NVM_ROOT_DIR=/usr/local/nvm ## << use this version if you are doing a site wide install
export NVM_DIR=$HOME/.nvm
[ -s "$NVM_ROOT_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_ROOT_DIR/nvm.sh"
[ -s "$NVM_ROOT_DIR/bash_completion" ] && . "$NVM_ROOT_DIR/bash_completion"
NVM_BIN=$HOME/.nvm/versions/node/v23.3.0/bin ## << you may need to change this line
NVM_INC=$HOME/.nvm/versions/node/v23.3.0/include/node ## << you may need to change this line
export PATH=$NVM_DIR:$NVM_BIN:$PATH

Download nvm and get the files you want:

git clone https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm.git
mkdir -p $NVM_ROOT_DIR
cp nvm/nvm.sh nvm/bash_completion $NVM_ROOT_DIR

Now, reload your bash settings

source ~/.bashrc

You should be able to run the nvm commands:

which nvm
nvm ls

To install node.js use nvm install

nvm install node

If you see this error:

wsl -bash:  node: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

then try installing a different version

node install --lts 

For me, using the default node install node didn’t work because of the binary file Exec format error, while using node install --lts worked like a charm!