Node.js overview

As an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime, Node.js is designed to build scalable network applications.

Node.js is similar in design to, and influenced by, systems like Ruby's Event Machine and Python's Twisted. Node.js takes the event model a bit further. It presents an event loop as a runtime construct instead of as a library. In other systems, there is always a blocking call to start the event-loop. Typically, behavior is defined through callbacks at the beginning of a script, and at the end a server is started through a blocking call like EventMachine::run(). In Node.js, there is no such start-the-event-loop call. Node.js simply enters the event loop after executing the input script. Node.js exits the event loop when there are no more callbacks to perform. This behavior is like browser JavaScript - the event loop is hidden from the user.

HTTP is a first-class citizen in Node.js, designed with streaming and low latency in mind. This makes Nodejs well suited for the foundation of a web library or framework.

Node.js being designed without threads doesn't mean you can't take advantage of multiple cores in your environment. Child processes can be spawned by using our child_process.fork() API, and are designed to be easy to communicate with. Built upon that same interface is the cluster module, which allows you to share sockets between processes to enable load balancing over your cores.

What’s new in version 24.12.0

Notable Changes

Http: Add optimizeEmptyRequests server option
Lib: Add options to util.deprecate
Module: Mark type stripping as stable
Node-api: Add napi_create_object_with_properties
Sqlite: Allow setting defensive flag
Src: Add watch config namespace
Src: Add an option to make compile cache portable
Src,permission: Add --allow-inspector ability
V8: Add cpu profile

Commits

Benchmark: Focus on import.meta intialization in import-meta benchmark
Benchmark: Add per-suite setup option
Buffer: Speed up concat via TypedArray#set
Build: Upgrade Python linter ruff, add rules ASYNC,PERF
Console: Optimize single-string logging
Crypto: Ensure documented RSA-PSS saltLength default is used
Crypto: Fix argument validation in crypto.timingSafeEqual fast path
Debugger: Fix event listener leak in the run command
Deps: V8: cherry-pick 72b0e27bd936
Deps: V8: cherry-pick 6bb32bd2c194
Deps: V8: cherry-pick 0dd2318b5237
Deps: V8: cherry-pick df20105ccf36
Deps: V8: backport e5dbbbadcbff
Deps: V8: cherry-pick 5ba9200cd046
Deps: Update corepack to 0.34.5
Deps: Update corepack to 0.34.4
Deps: V8: cherry-pick 06bf293610ef, 146962dda8d2 and e0fb10b5148c
Deps: Patch V8 to 13.6.233.17
Deps: V8: cherry-pick 87356585659b
Deps: V8: backport 2e4c5cf9b112
Deps: Call OPENSSL_free after ANS1_STRING_to_UTF8
Deps: nghttp2: revert 7784fa979d0b
Deps: Update nghttp2 to 1.67.1
Deps: Update simdjson to 4.1.0
Deps: Update amaro to 1.1.5
Deps: V8: cherry-pick 2abc61361dd4
Doc: Update Collaborators list to reflect hybrist handle change
Doc: Fix link in --env-file=file section
Doc: Fix linter issues
Doc: Add missing history entry for sqlite.md
Doc: Correct values/references for buffer.kMaxLength
Doc: Recommend events.once to manage 'close' event
Doc: Highlight module loading difference between import and require
Doc: Add CJS code snippets in sqlite.md
Doc: Fix typo in process.unref documentation
Doc: Add some entries to glossary.md
Doc: Improve agent.createConnection docs for http and https agents
Doc: Fix pseudo code in modules.md
Doc: Add missing variable in code snippet
Doc: Add missing word in single-executable-applications.md
Doc: Fix typo in http.md
Doc: Update devcontainer.json and add documentation
Doc: Add haramj as triager
Doc: Clarify require(esm) description
Doc: Instantiate resolver object
Doc: Correct module loading descriptions
Doc: Clarify --use-system-ca support status
Doc,crypto: Link keygen to supported types
Doc,src,lib: Clarify experimental status of Web Storage support
Esm: Use sync loading/resolving on non-loader-hook thread
Http: Add optimizeEmptyRequests server option
Http: Replace startsWith with strict equality
Http2: Add diagnostics channels for client stream request body
Inspector: Inspect HTTP response body
Inspector: Support inspecting HTTP/2 request and response bodies
Inspector: Fix crash when receiving non json message
Lib: Add options to util.deprecate
Lib: Replace global SharedArrayBuffer constructor with bound method
Meta: Bump actions/download-artifact from 5.0.0 to 6.0.0
Meta: Bump actions/upload-artifact from 4.6.2 to 5.0.0
Meta: Bump github/codeql-action from 3.30.5 to 4.31.2
Meta: Bump actions/setup-node from 5.0.0 to 6.0.0
Meta: Bump actions/stale from 10.0.0 to 10.1.0
Meta: Call create-release-post.yml post release
Module: Mark type stripping as stable
Module: Fix directory option in the enableCompileCache() API
Node-api: Add napi_create_object_with_properties
Node-api: Use local files for instanceof test
Perf_hooks: Fix stack overflow error
Perf_hooks: Move non-standard performance properties to perf_hooks
Repl: Fix pasting after moving the cursor to the left
Sqlite: Allow setting defensive flag
Sqlite,doc: Fix StatementSync section
Src: Use CP_UTF8 for wide file names on win32
Src: Move Node-API version detection to where it is used
Src: Add watch config namespace
Src: Add an option to make compile cache portable
Src: Avoid C strings in more C++ exception throws
Src: Add internal binding for constructing SharedArrayBuffers
Src: Move napi_addon_register_func to node_api_types.h
Src: Remove unconditional NAPI_EXPERIMENTAL in node.h
Src: Clean up generic counter implementation
Src: Add enum handle for ToStringHelper + formatting
Src,permission: Add --allow-inspector ability
Stream: Don't try to read more if reading
Test: Ensure assertions are reachable in test/internet
Test: Fix status when compiled without inspector
Test: Deflake test-perf-hooks-timerify-histogram-sync
Test: Apply a delay to watch-mode-kill-signal tests
Test: Async iife in repl
Test: Parallelize sea tests when there's enough disk space
Test: Only show overridden env in child process failures
Test: Ensure assertions are reached on more tests
Test: Ensure assertions are reachable in test/es-module
Test: Ensure assertions are reached on more tests
Test: Ensure assertions are reached on more tests
Test: Split test-perf-hooks-timerify
Test: Add more logs to test-esm-loader-hooks-inspect-wait
Test: Mark stringbytes-external-exceed-max tests as flaky on AIX
Test: Split test-esm-wasm.js
Test: Correct conditional secure heap flags test
Test: Fix flaky test-watch-mode-kill-signal-*
Test: Capture stack trace in debugger timeout errors
Test: Ensure assertions are reachable in test/sequential
Test: Ensure assertions are reachable in more folders
Test: Split test-runner-watch-mode
Test: Move test-runner-watch-mode helper into common
Test: Ensure assertions are reachable in test/addons
Test: Ignore EPIPE errors in https proxy invalid URL test
Test: Ensure assertions are reachable in test/client-proxy
Test: Ensure assertions are reachable in test/async-hooks
Test,crypto: Handle a few more BoringSSL tests
Test,crypto: Update x448 and ed448 expectation when on boringssl
Tls: Fix leak on invalid protocol method
Tools: Replace invalid expression in dependabot config
Tools: Skip unaffected GHA jobs for changes in test/internet
Tools: Do not use short hashes for deps versioning to avoid collision
Tools: Only add test reporter args when node:test is used
Tools: Fix update-icu script
Tools: Fix linter for semver-major release proposals
Tools: Fix failing release-proposal linter for LTS transitions
Tools: Remove undici from daily wpt.fyi job
Tools: Add lint rule to ensure assertions are reached
Tools,doc: Update JavaScript primitive types to match MDN Web Docs
Util: Fix stylize of special properties in inspect
V8: Add cpu profile
Vm: Hint module identifier in instantiate errors
Watch: Fix interaction with multiple env files

Node.js for Mac

Node.js overview

What’s new in version 24.12.0

Notable Changes

Commits

Node.js for Mac

Write your thoughts in our old-fashioned comment

(2 Reviews of Node.js)