History
Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, in 2010 Rocket Turtle, the official mascot of Node.js since February 2024 Node.js was initially written by Ryan Dahl in 2009, about 13 years after the introduction of the first server-side JavaScript environment, Netscape's LiveWire Pro Web. The initial release supported only Linux and Mac OS X. Its development and maintenance was led by Dahl and later sponsored by Joyent. Dahl criticized the limited capability of Apache HTTP Server to handle many (10,000+) concurrent connections, as well as the dominant programming paradigm of sequential programming, in which applications could block entire processes or cause the creation of multiple execution stacks for simultaneous connections. Dahl demonstrated the project at the inaugural European JSConf on November 8, 2009. Node.js combined Google's V8 JavaScript engine, an event loop, and a low-level I/O API. In January 2010, a package manager was introduced for the Node.js environment called npm. The package manager allows programmers to publish and share Node.js packages, along with the accompanying source code, and is designed to simplify the installation, update and uninstallation of packages. In June 2011, Microsoft and Joyent implemented a native Windows version of Node.js. The first Node.js build supporting Windows was released in July 2011. In January 2012, Dahl yielded management of the project to npm creator Isaac Schlueter. In January 2014, Schlueter announced that Timothy J. Fontaine would lead the project. In December 2014, Fedor Indutny created io.js, a fork of Node.js created because of dissatisfaction with Joyent's governance as an open-governance alternative with a separate technical committee. The goal was to enable a structure that would be more receptive to community input, including
Overview
Node.js allows the creation of web servers and networking tools using JavaScript and a collection of "modules" that handle various core functionalities.[excessive citations] Modules are provided for file system I/O, networking (DNS, HTTP, TCP, TLS/SSL or UDP), binary data (buffers), cryptography functions, data streams and other core functions. Node.js's modules use an API designed to reduce the complexity of writing server applications. Since version 22.6.0, Node.js natively supports both JavaScript and TypeScript, allowing TypeScript files to be executed without a separate compilation step. The TypeScript support was contributed by Node.js TSC member Marco Ippolito. In addition, many compile-to-JS languages are available, allowing Node.js applications to also be written in CoffeeScript, Dart, ClojureScript, and others. Node.js is primarily used to build network programs such as web servers. The most significant difference between Node.js and PHP is that most functions in PHP block until completion (commands execute only after previous commands finish), while Node.js functions are non-blocking (commands execute concurrently and use callbacks to signal completion or failure). Node.js is officially supported by Linux, macOS and Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 (and later), with Tier 2 support for SmartOS and IBM AIX and experimental support for FreeBSD. OpenBSD also works, and LTS versions are available for IBM i (AS/400). The source code may also be built on similar operating systems that are not officially supported, such as NonStop OS and Unix servers. Platform architecture Node.js enables development of fast web servers in JavaScript using event-driven programming. Developers can create scalab
Releases
New major releases of Node.js are cut from the GitHub main branch every six months. Even-numbered versions are cut in April and odd-numbered versions are cut in October. When a new odd version is released, the previous even version undergoes transition to Long Term Support (LTS), which gives that version 12 months of active support from the date it is designated LTS. After these 12 months expire, an LTS release receives an additional 18 months of maintenance support. An active version receives non-breaking backports of changes a few weeks after they land in the current release. A maintenance release receives only critical fixes and documentation updates. The LTS Working Group manages strategy and policy in collaboration with the Technical Steering Committee of the Node.js Foundation. Release Status Code name Release date Maintenance end Unsupported: 0.10.xoutput .version-legend-verticallegend .legend-item,vertical .legend-itemlegend .legend-item .swatch,vertical .legend-item .swatchoutput .swatch-maintainedoutput .swatch-previewmedia screenhtml.ski
Technical details
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that processes incoming requests in a loop, called the event loop. Internals Node.js uses libuv under the hood to handle asynchronous events. Libuv is an abstraction layer for network and file system functionality on both Windows and POSIX-based systems such as Linux, macOS, OSS on NonStop, and Unix. Node.js relies on nghttp2 for HTTP support. As of version 20, Node.js uses the ada library which provides up-to-date WHATWG URL compliance. As of version 19.5, Node.js uses the simdutf library for fast Unicode validation and transcoding. As of version 21.3, Node.js uses the simdjson library for fast JSON parsing. Threading Node.js operates on a single-thread event loop, using non-blocking I/O calls, allowing it to support tens of thousands of concurrent connections without incurring the cost of thread context switching. The design of sharing a single thread among all the requests that use the observer pattern is intended for building highly concurrent applications, where any function performing I/O must use a callback. To accommodate the single-threaded event loop, Node.js uses the libuv library—which, in turn, uses a fixed-sized thread pool that handles some of the non-blocking asynchronous I/O operations. A thread pool handles the execution of parallel tasks in Node.js. The main thread function call posts tasks to the shared task queue, which threads in the thread pool pull and execute. Inherently non-blocking system functions such as networking translate to kernel-side non-blocking sockets, while inherently blocking system functions such as file I/O run in a blocking way on their own threads. When a thread in the thread pool completes a task, it informs the main thread of this, which in turn, wakes up and executes the registered callback. A downside of this single-threaded approach is that Node.js does not allow vertical scaling by increasing
Project governance
OpenJS Foundation In 2015, various branches of the greater Node.js community began working under the vendor-neutral Node.js Foundation. The stated purpose of the organization "is to enable widespread adoption and help accelerate development of Node.js and other related modules through an open governance model that encourages participation, technical contribution, and a framework for long-term stewardship by an ecosystem invested in Node.js' success." The Node.js Foundation Technical Steering Committee (TSC) is the technical governing body of the Node.js Foundation. The TSC is responsible for the core Node.js repo as well as dependent and adjacent projects. Generally the TSC delegates the administration of these projects to working groups or committees. The LTS group that manages long term supported releases is one such group. Other current groups include Website, Streams, Build, Diagnostics, i18n, Evangelism, Docker, Addon API, Benchmarking, Post-mortem, Intl, Documentation, and Testing. In August 2017, a third of the TSC members resigned due to a dispute related to the project's code of conduct. Current TSC Members Username Full Name aduh95 Antoine du Hamel anonrig Yagiz Nizipli benjamingr Benjamin Gruenbaum BridgeAR Ruben Bridgewater gireeshpunathil Gireesh Punathil jasnell James M Snell joyeecheung Joyee Cheung legendecas Chengzhong Wu marco-ippolito Marco Ippolito mcollina Matteo Collina mhdawson Michael Dawson RafaelGSS Rafael Gonzaga richardlau Richard Lau ronag Robert Nagy ruyadorno Ruy Adorno ShogunPanda Paolo Insogna targos Michaël Zasso tniessen Tobias Nießen