Awesome, I like your approach even better than mine (below). Switched to this but will keep my script for my future users in case they're NodeJS noobs...
I have written the following script for this. Update all the version numbers for the next update. Somehow I was too lazy to make this a variable. Downloads the Node TAR.GZ to the current folder and extracts, so put this in some extra folder such as "node_setup". And run the script with sudo.
#!/bin/bash
apt-get install build-essential g++ curl libssl-dev apache2-utils pkg-config
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/node-v0.4.5.tar.gz
gunzip node-v0.4.5.tar.gz
tar -xf node-v0.4.5.tar
cd node-v0.4.5
./configure
make
make install
Checkout from github: git://github.com/joyent/node.git
Now:
git checkout v0.4.5
./configure
make
sudo make install
node -v
There are other ways, but this is pretty simple. Note that when you checkout the tag you will be in a detached HEAD state, which is fine, but when you next want to git pull, make sure you checkout master first, then checkout the next tag you require. You can see all tags with: git tag.
"... the easiest way to update an existing node.js (ubuntu) installation? ..."
The latest vid from ryan ~ http://blog.nodejs.org/2011/03/17/welcome-to-the-node-blog/ explained the need to download & install from source. This presumes you have V8 installed. Holler if you get into trouble I've installed a few times on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.
"... You mean, he explained that it was necessary to build from source, and why? Is this information available in textual form? ..."
It isn't 100% necessary. You can install from binaries. But as node is a moving target as a dev you get the best feature set/bug fixed version, faster. The talk hasn't been transcribed to my knowledge. Why not view the vid or ask @ryan or irc://irc.freenode.net#freenode why from source? The install instructions here ~ https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installation or install binaries here ~ https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installing-Node.js-via-p...
