We're excited to announce the release of Node.js 20! Highlights include the new Node.js Permission Model,
a synchronous import.meta.resolve, a stable test_runner, updates of the V8 JavaScript engine to 11.3, Ada to 2.0,
and more!
As a reminder, Node.js 20 will enter long-term support (LTS) in October, but until then, it will be the "Current" release for the next six months.
We encourage you to explore the new features and benefits offered by this latest release and evaluate their potential impact on your applications.
Notable Changes
Permission Model
Node.js now has an experimental feature called the Permission Model.
It allows developers to restrict access to specific resources during program execution, such as file system operations,
child process spawning, and worker thread creation.
The API exists behind a flag --experimental-permission which when enabled will restrict access to all available permissions.
By using this feature, developers can prevent their applications from accessing or modifying sensitive data or running potentially harmful code.
More information about the Permission Model can be found in the Node.js documentation.
The Permission Model was a contribution by Rafael Gonzaga in #44004.
Custom ESM loader hooks run on dedicated thread
ESM hooks supplied via loaders (--experimental-loader=foo.mjs) now run in a dedicated thread, isolated from the main thread.
This provides a separate scope for loaders and ensures no cross-contamination between loaders and application code.
Synchronous import.meta.resolve()
In alignment with browser behavior, this function now returns synchronously.
Despite this, user loader resolve hooks can still be defined as async functions (or as sync functions, if the author prefers).
Even when there are async resolve hooks loaded, import.meta.resolve will still return synchronously for application code.
Contributed by Anna Henningsen, Antoine du Hamel, Geoffrey Booth, Guy Bedford, Jacob Smith, and Michaël Zasso in #44710
Node.js 19 is here! Highlights include the update of the V8 JavaScript engine to 10.7, HTTP(s)/1.1 KeepAlive enabled by default, and ESM Resolution adjusts.
Node.js 19 will replace Node.js 18 as our ‘Current’ release line when Node.js 18 enters long-term support (LTS) later this month.
As per the release schedule, Node.js 19 will be ‘Current' release for the next 6 months, until April 2023.
Node.js 18 is here! Highlights include the update of the V8 JavaScript engine to 10.1, global fetch enabled by default, and a core test runner module.
Initially, Node.js 18 will replace Node.js 17 as our ‘Current’ release line. As per the release schedule, Node.js 18 will be the ‘Current’ release for the next 6 months and then promoted to Long-term Support (LTS) in October 2022. Once promoted to long-term support the release will be designated the codename ‘Hydrogen’. Node.js 18 will be supported until April 2025.
(SEMVER-MAJOR)stream: remove thenable support (Robert Nagy) #40773
(SEMVER-MAJOR)tls: move tls.parseCertString to end-of-life (Tobias Nießen) #41479
fetch (experimental)
An experimental fetch API is available on the global scope by default. The implementation is based upon undici, an HTTP/1.1 client written for Node.js by contributors to the project.
server.headersTimeout which limits the amount of time the parser will wait to receive the complete HTTP headers is now set to 60000 (60 seconds) by default.
server.requestTimeout which sets the timeout value in milliseconds for receiving the entire request from the client is now set to 300000 (5 minutes) by default.
If these timeouts expire, the server responds with status 408 without forwarding the request to the request listener and then closes the connection.
Both timeouts must be set to a non-zero value to protect against potential Denial-of-Service attacks in case the server is deployed without a reverse proxy in front.
Prebuilt binaries for Linux are now built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and are compatible with Linux distributions based on glibc 2.28 or later, for example, Debian 10, RHEL 8, Ubuntu 20.04.
Prebuilt binaries for macOS now require macOS 10.15 or later.
For AIX the minimum supported architecture has been raised from Power 7 to Power 8.
Prebuilt binaries for 32-bit Windows will initially not be available due to issues building the V8 dependency in Node.js. We hope to restore 32-bit Windows binaries for Node.js 18 with a future V8 update.
Node.js does not support running on operating systems that are no longer supported by their vendor. For operating systems where their vendor has planned to end support earlier than April 2025, such as Windows 8.1 (January 2023) and Windows Server 2012 R2 (October 2023), support for Node.js 18 will end at the earlier date.
Full details about the supported toolchains and compilers are documented in the Node.js BUILDING.md file.
Here is everything you need to know about this upgrade. Please take a good look at what changed and the test results before merging this pull request.
What changed?
Release Notes
21.3.0
21.2.0
21.1.0
21.0.0
20.0.0
19.0.0
18.0.0
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