Gary Pendergast 1:07 am on May 28, 2018
Tags: prio1 ( 55 )

Upgrade Node/NPM on Build Server

Could Node please be upgraded to the latest LTS version (8.11.2), and NPM upgrade to 6.1.0?

#prio1

Barry 1:20 am on June 19, 2018

I would prefer to use the `npm` version bundled with node – otherwise there is no good way to keep things in sync. Node 8.11.3 LTS shps with NPM 5.6.0 – is there a specific reason that wont work?
- Gary Pendergast 2:07 am on June 20, 2018
  
  NPM 6.0 added (and NPM 6.1 made useful) the audit feature, which I’d like to make use of.
  
  Given that Calypso has successfully made the jump to Node 10, I think it’s reasonable for us to do that in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., too. We’ll do some testing to make sure it all works, and I’ll let you know.
  - Stephen Edgar 10:35 am on June 20, 2018
    
    We had decided to stick to Node.js LTS releases.
    
    When Node.js 10.x enters LTS this October we should look to switching to that then
    
    https://github.com/nodejs/Release#release-schedule
- Stephen Edgar 10:38 am on June 20, 2018
  
  Node.js and npm are not meant to be kept “in sync”, Node.js just so happens to include a release of npm in each Node.js release.
  
  npm’s recommendation is to always run the latest release which currently resides at 6.1.x
  - Barry 2:46 pm on June 20, 2018
    
    Of course every software project (including WP) recommends running the latest release.
    - Stephen Edgar 3:29 pm on June 20, 2018
      
      True that, as @pento noted above npm 6.x has a few features that we’ve started utilising in both WordPress and GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ including improved (stable even) `package-lock.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML.`support and there are further 6.x enhancements we’d like to utilise.
      
      If nvm could be used that would be an even better solution. Last time I enquired about this with Dion I was informed this was not an option unfortunately, though if this has changed since the recent infrastructure upgrades this would allow WordPress to manage Node.js and npm versions independently of the systems team.
obenland 8:56 pm on August 16, 2018

This ticket was discussed during a make/systems scrub today.

Summarizing, the current situation is pretty unmaintainable because old versions of WP require old versions of nodejs (and packages) to build, which could have security/functionality problems.

@nacin is available next week to discuss future steps here.
- Stephen Edgar 6:16 am on October 9, 2018
  
  I’ve spoken with @dd32 about this previously, @nacin also rasied it in the above linked chat:
  
  At some point, it probably makes sense to try to upgrade node on older branches, the catch is simply to see if there’s a lot of churn in built CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. and JS files.
  
  I’m more than happy to update the older branches to build using the same Node.js and npm versions proposed here in this request.
  
  I think there is a ticket where I had already performed the above for the 3.7 or 3.8 branch as a test case, alas that ticket is alluding me at this moment.
Stephen Edgar 3:14 am on August 17, 2018

…old versions of WP require old versions of nodejs

This is not strictly true, @dd32 and I have discussed previously having all branches of WP (3.7 through 5.0) all use the latest LTS Node.js release.

Rather than have any of the npm packages used become out of date and worse deprecated which is quite a common practice we would use the latest build tools with each WP branch.

The discussed downsides in doing this would be that release may include minor CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. or JS changes, these would be primarily due to bug fixes in the minifiers used and would be relatively small changes we believe and would not affect shipping these changes nor automatic updates for these branches.

So, if a single version of Node.js installed on the build server is preferable then that is also from my “Build Tools Component Maintainer” hat wearing perspective, we’d simple update each branch of WP to use the same Node.js and npm build tooling.

To reiterate what I’ve previously mentioned, if installing nvm to manage installed Node.js and npm versions is possible then this would remove the need for any future systems requests to update Node.js and npm as this would be maintained in the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. codebase.
Barry 5:41 am on November 22, 2018
```
# node --version
v10.13.0

# npm --version
6.4.1
```
So, I’m going to mark this as resolved. The way the builds work needs to be fixed, but it’s a separate issue.