Stage 4 · Lesson 6 of 8

Installing developer tools properly

happens in layers. Most tools should come from your : apt in and WSL, brew on a Mac, or dnf and pacman on other distros. On top of that, each programming language has its own manager, such as pip for and npm for .

These install libraries (reusable code) for one project. Always know which layer you are using. Install a project's libraries inside that project, for example in a Python virtual environment (venv), a private folder of packages for one project.

Do not install them for the whole system with sudo. When a tool has no package, follow its official instructions, not a random blog.

Common trapsudo pip install or sudo npm install -g, which can break system tools and leaves root-owned files.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it

Resources for this stage

Start with

BookFree
The Linux Command Line
William Shotts · Beginner
Its chapters on permissions and processes are the clearest free explanation of this stage

Practise

OverTheWire: Bandit
Later levels need permissions, setuid binaries and processes to progress

Keep handy

nvm (Node Version Manager)
The official README for installing nvm and switching Node versions per project
Homebrew
How brew installs, upgrades and cleans up the tools on your Mac

Also worth your time

roadmap.sh: LinuxGo deeper
See the users, permissions and process management branches of the Linux map