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Consider dropping support for Node.js <18.17.0

Open wojtekmaj opened this issue 5 months ago • 0 comments

Hi! 👋

I’d like to propose raising the minimum supported Node.js version to ≥18.17.0.

Motivation:

  • Dependency health: which@^5 requires Node ≥18.17.0. Today cross-spawn still supports Node ≥8, which effectively pins the tree to which@2 (released ~6 years ago). Bumping the engines field would unlock which@5 and similar modern updates. Maintenance & security: Supporting very old Node versions increases maintenance burden and limits the ability to adopt upstream fixes and ecosystem improvements.
  • Modernization: Dropping legacy Node versions makes it easier to simplify code paths and align with the current ecosystem.

Compatibility / migration path:

  • Projects still on legacy Node versions can continue using cross-spawn@7.
  • For active LTS and current users (Node 18/20/22+), this change should be a no-op aside from receiving newer dependency versions.

Happy to open a PR with the engines bump, dependency updates, and CI matrix adjustments if this direction sounds good.

What do you think?

wojtekmaj avatar Aug 08 '25 07:08 wojtekmaj