'nvm is not compatible with the npm config "prefix" option' message in every shell

[sersorrel]

Every time I open a shell (I have default aliased to node), the following message is printed:

nvm is not compatible with the npm config "prefix" option: currently set to "/home/josh/.local/share/nvm/versions/node/v4.5.0"
Run `nvm use --delete-prefix v4.5.0 --silent` to unset it.

I don't understand why this appears, as I don't have node installed globally and doing sudo find / -name '*npmrc*' doesn't return anything except the man pages for npm.

After doing nvm use --delete-prefix v4.5.0 --silent, npm config ls -l | grep prefix prints prefix = "/home/josh/.local/share/nvm/versions/node/v4.5.0", so maybe it's something to do with that?

I installed nvm with curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.31.7/install.sh | NVM_DIR=.local/share/nvm bash, then ran nvm install --lts and nvm alias default node.

[ljharb]

What does nvm debug print out? It looks like your NVM_DIR is not $HOME, but is inside $HOME/.local/share/nvm?

[sersorrel]

$ nvm debug
nvm --version: v0.31.7
$SHELL: /bin/bash
$HOME: /home/josh
$NVM_DIR: '.local/share/nvm'
$PREFIX: ''
$NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX: ''
nvm current: none
which node: 
which iojs: 
which npm: 
npm config get prefix: The program 'npm' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install npm
npm root -g: The program 'npm' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install npm

I set my $NVM_DIR to .local/share/nvm on install.

I just tried reinstalling without specifying $NVM_DIR, and it seems to work - I got a message from nvm install --lts saying nvm_ensure_default_set: a version is required, but I ran nvm alias default node and it all appears to work.

It actually looks like the problem occurs if $NVM_DIR is not an absolute path; setting it to $HOME/.local/share/nvm works fine.

[ljharb]

yes, that's absolutely correct - if it's a relative path then nvm would work or not based on your current directory.