Installing NodeJS LTS for Ansible

Not that I am really happy with having had to do this, but...

(env: Ubuntu 18.04, ansible 2.6.1, host: macOS )

from https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/blob/master/README.md#debinstall

- name: install node 
  shell: |
    curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash - && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

result:

> vagrant@vagrant:~$ node --version
v10.15.2

and npm must have come along too:

vagrant@vagrant:~$ npm --version
6.4.1

At the time I ran this, https://www.npmjs.com/package/npm was showing 6.8.0 as latest, with 6.4.1 being from 6 months before. Node was showing 10.15.2 as latest in 10.x series, dating 5 days before.

btw, I also tried apt-get but that ended with node 8.x rather than 10.x

And the reason I didn't use an ansible galaxy role is that I didn't see any nodejs ones that seemed to come from well-known authors and with lots of stars and downloads (I am cautious and suspicious).

updating npm

My dev machine had 6.8.0 so I added this:

vars.yml:

versions:
  npm: "6.8.0"

playbook.yml:

- name: npm self-update
  command: npm install npm@{{ versions.npm }} -g

which got me all the way to:

vagrant@vagrant:~$ npm --version
6.8.0

You can use:

ansible-galaxy install nodesource.node

and then on your playbook, add roles: - nodesource.node

The accepted answer is good, but if you want you can use discovered variables for the distro codename (namely ansible_lsb.codename). Also, ensuring that gcc g++ make are installed on the host machine ensures native addons for nodejs will work properly.

Just replace node version 12 with what you'd like.

---
- name: Install nodejs
  hosts: all
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: install nodejs prerequisites
      apt:
        name:
          - apt-transport-https
          - gcc
          - g++
          - make
        state: present
    - name: add nodejs apt key
      apt_key:
        url: https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key
        state: present
    - name: add nodejs repository
      apt_repository:
        repo: deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_12.x {{ ansible_lsb.codename }} main
        state: present
        update_cache: yes
    - name: install nodejs
      apt:
        name: nodejs
        state: present

Here is the working example:

---
- hosts: all
  gather_facts: yes
  become: yes
  vars:
    NODEJS_VERSION: "8"
    ansible_distribution_release: "xenial" #trusty
  tasks:
    - name: Install the gpg key for nodejs LTS
      apt_key:
        url: "https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key"
        state: present

    - name: Install the nodejs LTS repos
      apt_repository:
        repo: "deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_{{ NODEJS_VERSION }}.x {{ ansible_distribution_release }} main"
        state: present
        update_cache: yes

    - name: Install the nodejs
      apt:
        name: nodejs
        state: present

Hope it will help you