nvm won't install on macbook

[intolos]

Operating system and version:

macbook pro 2016 with OS 12.7.6

nvm debug output:

Details

nvm ls output:

Details

How did you install nvm?

What steps did you perform?

I don't understand all this so I'm following instructions from videos and google searches. I have a macbook pro 2016 with OS 12.7.6. I tried to run the following in terminal and you can see the error message which asks to report it so I am:

bash-3.2$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 16631  100 16631    0     0   6105      0  0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:--  6105
=> Downloading nvm from git to '/Users/edmass/.nvm'
=> xcrun: error: invalid active developer path (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools), missing xcrun at: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/xcrun
Failed to clone nvm repo. Please report this!

What happened?

What did you expect to happen?

Is there anything in any of your profile files that modifies the PATH?

If you are having installation issues, or getting "N/A", what does curl -I --compressed -v https://nodejs.org/dist/ print out?

Details

bash-3.2$ curl -I --compressed -v https://nodejs.org/dist/
* Host nodejs.org:443 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 172.66.128.70, 104.20.1.252
*   Trying 172.66.128.70:443...
* Connected to nodejs.org (172.66.128.70) port 443
* ALPN: curl offers h2,http/1.1
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
*  CAfile: /etc/ssl/cert.pem
*  CApath: none
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Unknown (8):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / AEAD-AES256-GCM-SHA384 / [blank] / UNDEF
* ALPN: server accepted h2
* Server certificate:
*  subject: CN=*.nodejs.org
*  start date: Mar 12 00:00:00 2025 GMT
*  expire date: Apr 12 23:59:59 2026 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "nodejs.org" matched cert's "nodejs.org"
*  issuer: C=GB; ST=Greater Manchester; L=Salford; O=Sectigo Limited; CN=Sectigo RSA Domain Validation Secure Server CA
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
* using HTTP/2
* [HTTP/2] [1] OPENED stream for https://nodejs.org/dist/
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:method: HEAD]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:scheme: https]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:authority: nodejs.org]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:path: /dist/]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [user-agent: curl/8.7.1]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [accept: */*]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [accept-encoding: deflate, gzip]
> HEAD /dist/ HTTP/2
> Host: nodejs.org
> User-Agent: curl/8.7.1
> Accept: */*
> Accept-Encoding: deflate, gzip
> 
* Request completely sent off
< HTTP/2 200 
HTTP/2 200 
< date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 07:42:41 GMT
date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 07:42:41 GMT
< content-type: text/html
content-type: text/html
< content-encoding: gzip
content-encoding: gzip
< cache-control: public, max-age=3600, s-maxage=14400
cache-control: public, max-age=3600, s-maxage=14400
< last-modified: Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:44:54 GMT
last-modified: Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:44:54 GMT
< vary: Accept-Encoding
vary: Accept-Encoding
< strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload
strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
x-content-type-options: nosniff
< server: cloudflare
server: cloudflare
< cf-ray: 9b5fe6e55c6318f4-SEA
cf-ray: 9b5fe6e55c6318f4-SEA
< 

* Connection #0 to host nodejs.org left intact
bash-3.2$ 

[ljharb]

A 9-10 year old computer is quite ancient, so fair warning that new nodes might not run on it.

In this case, your xcode command line tools aren't installed (or, aren't installed correctly). You'll have to try reinstalling them.