Build Linux binaries for Node.js 27 on RHEL 9
Nobody has claimed this yet.
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- Jinja
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Description
Discussed for Node.js 26, but shelved: https://github.com/nodejs/build/issues/4197
Revisiting this for Node.js 27. Node.js 27 is expected to go End-of-Life at the end of April 2030.
RHEL 8 is scheduled to end maintenance support in May 2029.
In other words, if we build Node.js 27 releases on RHEL 8 our release machines would be on an unmaintained OS for almost an entire year at the end.
I'm proposing that we shift building the Linux binaries for Node.js 26 onwards to RHEL 9 (maintenance for that planned to end in May 2032). This would mean that the glibc requirements to run the official Linux binaries would raise from glibc 2.28 to 2.34 which will affect compatibility on popular Linux distributions:
| Distribution | glibc | Supported if binary built on RHEL 9 |
|---|---|---|
| Debian 10 | 2.28 | ❌ |
| Debian 11 | 2.31 | ❌ |
| Debian 12 | 2.36 | ✅ |
| Debian 13 | 2.41 | ✅ |
| RHEL 8 | 2.28 | ❌ |
| RHEL 9 | 2.34 | ✅ |
| RHEL 10 | 2.39 | ✅ |
| Ubuntu 20.04 | 2.31 | ❌ |
| Ubuntu 22.04 | 2.35 | ✅ |
| Ubuntu 24.04 | 2.39 | ✅ |
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reviewing the prior discussion in nodejs/build#4197 and the compatibility table in this issue. Determine the release and build-infrastructure changes needed for Node.js 27 Linux binaries on RHEL 9, with the glibc compatibility impact explicitly resolved before considering the work done.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- linux, node.js
- Domain
- build-system, infrastructure, release
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100