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Node versioning
This page discusses a number of aspects of Node versioning on App Service
There is a 'root' Node installed directly in D:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs
, which is an ancient version: v0.6.20
. There is no legitimate use for this version.
Improvement: we should clean this up.
Then under that folder, there is one subfolder for each supported version. e.g. v8.8.1
is in D:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs\8.8.1
.
When we need to remove a version from the VM, instead of just deleting the folder, we create a symlink to a different version, so that apps pointing to the deleted version have a chance to continue working.
You can see this by running 'dir' under D:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs
in Kudu Console. e.g.
10/26/2017 04:04 AM <SYMLINKD> 5.8.0 [D:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs\6.11.2]
10/26/2017 04:04 AM <SYMLINKD> 5.9.1 [D:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs\6.11.2]
Improvement: instead of relying on symlinks, it may be better to have smart behavior on App Starts that picks a best match version.
In the absence of this app setting, we use the root Node, which is v0.6.20
. This is bad.
Improvement: instead of using the default, it should use the latest. Current behavior was to avoid a breaking change earlier. But now that v0.6.20
is for all practical purpose unusable, we can change the behavior.
If the version doesn't exist, the site is 100% busted with 500.
Improvement: instead of just failing, it should use the closest match
Today, WEBSITE_NODE_DEFAULT_VERSION
must be set to an exact value, e.g. 8.8.1
Improvement: it could support some subset of semver ranges, e.g. ~8 for the latest 8.x.