Use n module from npm in order to upgrade node

sudo npm cache clean -f
sudo npm install -g n
sudo n stable

To upgrade to latest version (and not current stable) version, you can use

sudo n latest

• Fix PATH:

    sudo apt-get install --reinstall nodejs-legacy     # fix /usr/bin/node
  

• To undo:

    sudo n rm 6.0.0     # replace number with version of Node that was installed
    sudo npm uninstall -g n
  

You may need to restart your terminal to see the updated node version.

Found in David Walsh blog

Complete installation instructions have since been uploaded here by Nodesource. It is copied below for your reference. Instructions are the same for updating to the latest version.

If you don't like curl ... | sudo bash - then you can follow the manual instructions, which tells you how to add the Node.js repository to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ yourself.

NOTE: If you are using Ubuntu Precise or Debian Wheezy, you might want to read about running Node.js >= 6.x on older distros

Node.js Current:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_current.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_current.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v13.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_13.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_13.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v12.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v11.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_11.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_11.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v10.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v9.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_9.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_9.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v8.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v7.x:

NOTE: Debian Wheezy and Ubuntu Precise packages are NOT available for this release. Please reference running Node.js >= 4.x on older distros

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v6.x:

NOTE: If you are using Ubuntu Precise or Debian Wheezy, you might want to read about running Node.js >= 4.x on older distros.

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v5.x:

NOTE: If you are using Ubuntu Precise or Debian Wheezy, you might want to read about running Node.js >= 4.x on older distros.

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v4.x:

NOTE: If you are using Ubuntu Precise or Debian Wheezy, you might want to read about running Node.js >= 4.x on older distros.

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v0.12:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.12 | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.12 | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

Node.js v0.10:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.10 | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.10 | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

io.js v3.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_iojs_3.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y iojs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_iojs_3.x | bash -
apt-get install -y iojs

io.js v2.x:

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_iojs_2.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y iojs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_iojs_2.x | bash -
apt-get install -y iojs

io.js v1.x:

Note: this branch of io.js is not actively maintained and is not recommended for production use.

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_iojs_1.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y iojs

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_iojs_1.x | bash -
apt-get install -y iojs

I also recommend using nvm instead, and also removing the already installed version to avoid conflicts in the terminal

sudo apt purge nodejs npm

then install nvm and use it

Video Explanation

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.8/install.sh | bash

to download and install nvm

nvm install node

should download and install the latest version of node.

To update node later on just do

nvm install node
nvm alias default node

This PPA is out of date and not maintained anymore; you should consider other answers instead of this one.

You can install the latest version from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install nodejs

I use NVM to handle my Node versions. Very simple to set up and easy to use.

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.0/install.sh | bash
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

To install NVM globally instead, use the following curl command instead of the one above (and presumably don't use the second command but do use the third one)

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.0/install.sh | NVM_DIR=/usr/local/nvm bash

Then use nvm install stable (or insert a version number instead of stable) to get the latest/a specific version of Node. Use nvm use stable (or a specific version number) to use that Node version. Use nvm ls to see what Node versions you have installed and nvm uninstall stable(or a specific version number) to remove a specific version of Node.

Sources: Install, usage

Note

If you are struggling with updating npm to the latest stable version because you are stuck at a specific version of npm and every time you update it that doesn't work then you can use this method to update npm as well. As soon as you install the latest stable version of node, npm will automatically be updated to its latest stable version.

NVM (Node Version manager) with --lts

NVM was mentioned at: https://askubuntu.com/a/441527/52975 but here goes a more complete usage example, including the sane --lts version, which installs the latest Long Term Support version of Node, which is likely the one you want if you don't have more specific requirement.

Install NVM and the latest Node LTS version:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | sh
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts
npm --version

Now test it out with a dummy package:

npm install --global vaca
vaca

Since the sourcing has to be done for every new shell, the install script hacks adds some auto sourcing to the end of your .barshrc. That works, but I prefer to remove the auto-added one and add my own:

f="$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"
if [ -r "$f" ]; then
  . "$f" &>'/dev/null'
  nvm use --lts &>'/dev/null'
fi

Advantages:

• allows you to use multiple versions of Node and without sudo

• is analogous to Ruby RVM and Python Virtualenv, widely considered best practice in Ruby and Python communities

• downloads a pre-compiled binary where possible, and if not it downloads the source and compiles one for you

We can easily switch node versions with:

nvm install 0.9.0
nvm install 0.9.9
nvm use 0.9.0
node --version
#v0.9.0
nvm use 0.9.9
node --version
#v0.9.9

You can then use a git tracked .nvmrc file to indicate the node version required for a given project: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24869959/how-do-i-specify-a-local-version-of-node-for-a-project/54503474#54503474

With this setup, you get for example:

which node

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/node

and:

which vaca

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/bin/vaca

and if we want to use the globally installed module:

npm link vaca
node -e 'console.log(require.resolve("vaca"))'

gives:

/home/ciro/.nvm/versions/node/v0.9.0/lib/node_modules/vaca/index.js

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15636367/nodejs-require-a-global-module-package
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7970793/how-do-i-import-global-modules-in-node-i-get-error-cannot-find-module-module

so we see that everything is completely contained inside the specific node version.

Tested in Ubuntu 17.10.

CLEAN SIMPLE STEPS (which I use) :

1. Uninstall previous version of node -
   sudo apt remove node && sudo apt autoremove

2. Go to https://nodejs.org/en/ and download the latest version of node.

3. Now open the terminal and change the directory where node is downloaded and then run-
   tar -xvf node-v12.16.2-linux-x64.tar.xz

4. now run this in terminal -
   nano ~/.bashrc

5. and append it with the following –
   export PATH=/path/to/node-js/bin:$PATH
   Where, /path/to/node-js/ is to be replaced where you extracted node in step 3.`

6. run a last command source ~/.bashrc

That's it.
Now you can check your node version by node -v

I tried the same list commands on my ubuntu 14.04 but it was still throwing an error.

Commands I executed were:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install nodejs

and the error i was getting:

Invalid version 0.12.2
Line 299: curl not found in /bin/n

What I figured out was curl utility was not installed on my os.

I executed command:

apt-get install curl

(use sudo as prefix if you are not su)

and then repeated the steps suggest in answer and it work ;)

This one installs the latest node v0.12.* from nodesource.

sudo apt-get install -y curl
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.12 | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

For node v4.x

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

If using n does not work, you can install the latest version of nodejs (i. e. version 8) running the following commands:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Further instructions are here.