[Bug] - NodeJS Package Issue

[Joe-Zer0]

Describe the bug
The package nodejs.x86_64 is version 1:18.20.4-1.amzn2023.0.1. This needs to be updated to NodeJS 22, or at least NodeJS 20. As of December 18th 2024, updating NPM will fail due to the the version of NodeJS being <20.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. dnf install nodejs -y
2. npm install npm -g

Expected behavior
NPM should update without error.

Desktop (please complete the following information):
I ran into this issue with the docker image amazonlinux:2023

Additional context
I also tried installing the package nodejs20. But subsequently running node --version gives "bash: node: command not found". Which I believe is also an issue.

EDIT: Adding link to NodeJS releases for easy reference - https://nodejs.org/en/about/previous-releases

[zcobol]

@Joe-Zer0 if you install nodejs20 the name of the commands are node-20 and npm-20. After installation use update-alternatives to add node and npm:

[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ sudo alternatives --install /usr/bin/node node /usr/bin/node-20 0
[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ sudo alternatives --install /usr/bin/npm npm /usr/bin/npm-20 0

Verify:

[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ alternatives --list
---cut---
node                    auto    /usr/bin/node-20
npm                     auto    /usr/bin/npm-20
[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ command -v node
/usr/bin/node
[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ command -v npm
/usr/bin/npm
[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ node --version
v20.18.0
[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ npm --version
10.8.2

[Joe-Zer0]

Thank you for that workaround. That will be helpful. Hopefully they will update the main nodejs package soon.

[wmanning]

I don't think they will. They usually leave the original package name for backwards compatibility and then append a short version number for subsequent releases. They did the same for python.

[Joe-Zer0]

I believe that is due to python being critical to the functionality of the operation system. Most packages are kept up to date.

[stewartsmith]

NodeJS 20 was added in the 2023.3.20231211 release, and can be installed through the nodejs20 package.

We namespace packages such as NodeJS so that we don't force customers to migrate from one major version to the next, rather allowing them to move at their own pace. This is covered for Python in the Python in AL2023
section of the Amazon Linux 2023 User Guide.

I am going to keep this issue open for some Documentation updates that cover nodejs specifically, as I see that isn't currently in our User Guide.

[Joe-Zer0]

Should the existing syntax be used to allow users to pin a specific version?
sudo apt-get install <package name>=<version>

I think there should be a way to stay on the latest version (and latest LTS version in the case of node) without changing packages.