Node.js
 | |
| Original author(s) | Ryan Dahl |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | OpenJS Foundation |
| Initial release | May 27, 2009[1] |
| Stable release | 22.0.0[2] 
/ April 24, 2024 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | JavaScript,C++,Python,C |
| Operating system | z/OS,Linux,macOS,Microsoft Windows,SmartOS,FreeBSD,OpenBSD,IBM AIX[3] |
| Type | Runtime environment |
| License | MIT License[4][5] |
| Website | nodejs |
Node.jsis across-platform,open-sourceJavaScriptruntime environmentthat can run onWindows,Linux,Unix,macOS,and more. Node.js runs on theV8JavaScript engine,and executes JavaScript code outside aweb browser.
Node.js lets developers use JavaScript to write command line tools and forserver-side scripting.The ability to run JavaScript code on the server is often used to generatedynamic web pagecontent before the page is sent to the user's web browser. Consequently, Node.js represents a "JavaScript everywhere" paradigm,[6]unifyingweb-applicationdevelopment around a singleprogramming language,as opposed to using different languages for the server- versus client-side programming.
Node.js has anevent-driven architecturecapable ofasynchronous I/O.These design choices aim to optimizethroughputandscalabilityin web applications with many input/output operations, as well as forreal-time Webapplications (e.g.,real-time communicationprograms andbrowser games).[7]
The Node.jsdistributed developmentproject was previously governed by the Node.js Foundation,[8]and has now merged with theJS Foundationto form theOpenJS Foundation.OpenJS Foundation is facilitated by theLinux Foundation's Collaborative Projects program.[9]
History[edit]
Node.js was initially written byRyan Dahlin 2009,[10]about 13 years after the introduction of the first server-side JavaScript environment,Netscape'sLiveWire Pro Web.[11]The initial release supported only Linux and Mac OS X. Its development and maintenance was led by Dahl and later sponsored byJoyent.[12]
Dahl criticized the limited capability ofApache HTTP Serverto 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.[13]
Dahl demonstrated the project at the inaugural European JSConf on November 8, 2009.[14][15][16]Node.js combinedGoogle'sV8JavaScript engine, anevent loop,and a low-levelI/OAPI.[17]
In January 2010, apackage managerwas introduced for the Node.js environment callednpm.[18]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.[17]
In June 2011, Microsoft and Joyent implemented a nativeWindowsversion of Node.js.[19]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.[20]In January 2014, Schlueter announced that Timothy J. Fontaine would lead the project.[21]
In December 2014, Fedor Indutny created io.js, aforkof Node.js created because of dissatisfaction with Joyent's governance as anopen-governancealternative with a separate technical committee. The goal was to enable a structure that would be more receptive to community input, including the updating of io.js with the latest Google V8 JavaScript engine releases, diverging from Node.js's approach at that time.[22]
The Node.js Foundation, formed to reconcile Node.js and io.js under a unified banner, was announced in February 2015.[23]The merger was realized in September 2015 with Node.js v0.12 and io.js v3.3 combining into Node v4.0.[24]This merge brought V8ES6features into Node.js and started a long-term support release cycle.[25]By 2016, the io.js website recommended returning to Node.js and announced no further io.js releases, effectively ending the fork and solidifying the merger's success.[26]
In 2019, the JS Foundation and Node.js Foundation merged to form theOpenJS Foundation.
On September 6, 2023, Node.js 20.6.0 was released. The update brought the addition of built-in support for.envfiles, the unflagging ofimport.meta.resolve,the introduction of a newnode:moduleAPI register for module customization hooks and a new initialize hook. Additionally, the module customization load hook now supports CommonJS, and Node.js C++ add-ons have gained experimental support for cppgc (Oilpan), which is a C++ garbage collection library for V8.[27]
Branding[edit]
The Node.js logo features a green hexagon with overlapping bands to represent the cross-platform nature of the runtime.[28]The Rocket Turtle was chosen as the official Node.js mascot in February 2024 following a design contest.[29]
Overview[edit]
Node.js allows the creation ofweb serversand networking tools usingJavaScriptand a collection of "modules" that handle various core functionalities.[14][17][30][31][32]Modules are provided forfile systemI/O, networking (DNS,HTTP,TCP,TLS/SSLorUDP),binarydata (buffers),cryptographyfunctions,data streamsand other core functions.[17][31][33]Node.js's modules use an API designed to reduce the complexity of writing server applications.[17][31]
JavaScript is the only language that Node.js supports natively, but manycompile-to-JSlanguages are available.[34]As a result, Node.js applications can be written inCoffeeScript,[35]Dart,TypeScript,ClojureScriptand others.
Node.js is primarily used to build network programs such as web servers.[30]The most significant difference between Node.js andPHPis that most functions in PHPblockuntil completion (commands execute only after previous commands finish), while Node.js functions arenon-blocking(commands executeconcurrentlyor even inparallel,[36][37][improper synthesis?]and usecallbacksto signal completion or failure).[30]
Node.js is officially supported byLinux,macOSandMicrosoft Windows8.1 and Server 2012 (and later),[3]with Tier 2 support forSmartOSandIBM AIXand experimental support forFreeBSD.OpenBSDalso works, and LTS versions are available forIBM i(AS/400).[38]The source code may also be built on similar operating systems that are not officially supported, such asNonStop OS[39]andUnixservers.
Platform architecture[edit]
Node.js enables development of fast web servers in JavaScript usingevent-driven programming.[17]Developers can create scalable servers without usingthreadingby using a simplified model that usescallbacksto signal the completion of a task.[17][page needed]Node.js connects the ease of a scripting language (JavaScript) with the power of Unix network programming.[17]
Node.js was built on top of Google's V8 JavaScript engine since it was open-sourced under theBSD license,and it contains comprehensive support for fundamental protocols such asHTTP,DNSandTCP.[14]JavaScript's existing popularity made Node.js accessible to theweb-development community.[14]
Industry support[edit]
There are thousands of open-source libraries for Node.js, most of which are hosted on the npm website. Multiple developer conferences and events are held that support the Node.js community, including NodeConf, Node Interactive and Node Summit, as well as a number of regional events.
The open-source community has developedweb frameworksto accelerate the development of applications. Such frameworks includeExpress.js,Socket.IO,Sails.js,Next.jsandMeteor.[17][40]Various packages have also been created for interfacing with other languages or runtime environments such asMicrosoft.NET.[41]
Modern desktopIDEsprovide editing and debugging features specifically for Node.js applications. Such IDEs includeAtom,Brackets,JetBrainsWebStorm,[42][43]Microsoft Visual Studio(with Node.js Tools for Visual Studio,[44]orTypeScriptwith Node definitions[45][46][47][48]),NetBeans,[49]Nodeclipse Enide Studio[50](Eclipse-based) andVisual Studio Code.[51][52]Someonline IDEsalso support Node.js, such asCodeanywhere,Eclipse Che,Cloud9 IDEand the visual flow editor inNode-RED.
Node.js is supported across a number of cloud-hosting platforms such asJelastic,Google Cloud Platform,AWS Elastic Beanstalk,Azure Web AppsandJoyent.
Releases[edit]
| Release[53] | Status | Code name | Release date | Maintenance end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.10.x | End-of-Life | 2013-03-11 | 2016-10-31 | |
| 0.12.x | End-of-Life | 2015-02-06 | 2016-12-31 | |
| 4.x | End-of-Life | Argon[54] | 2015-09-08 | 2018-04-30 |
| 5.x | End-of-Life | 2015-10-29 | 2016-06-30 | |
| 6.x | End-of-Life | Boron[54] | 2016-04-26 | 2019-04-30 |
| 7.x | End-of-Life | 2016-10-25 | 2017-06-30 | |
| 8.x | End-of-Life | Carbon[54] | 2017-05-30 | 2019-12-31 |
| 9.x | End-of-Life | 2017-10-01 | 2018-06-30 | |
| 10.x | End-of-Life | Dubnium[54] | 2018-04-24 | 2021-04-30 |
| 11.x | End-of-Life | 2018-10-23 | 2019-06-01 | |
| 12.x | End-of-Life | Erbium[54] | 2019-04-23 | 2022-04-30 |
| 13.x | End-of-Life | 2019-10-22 | 2020-06-01 | |
| 14.x | End-of-Life | Fermium[54] | 2020-04-21 | 2023-04-30 |
| 15.x | End-of-Life | 2020-10-20 | 2021-06-01 | |
| 16.x | End-of-Life | Gallium[54] | 2021-04-20 | 2023-09-11[55] |
| 17.x | End-of-Life | 2021-10-19 | 2022-06-01 | |
| 18.x | Maintenance LTS | Hydrogen[54] | 2022-04-19 | 2025-04-30 |
| 19.x | End-of-Life | 2022-10-18 | 2023-06-01 | |
| 20.x | Active LTS | Iron[56] | 2023-04-18 | 2026-04-30 |
| 21.x | Maintenance | [54] | 2023-10-17 | 2024-06-01 |
| 22.x | Current | Jod[56][54] | 2024-04-24 | 2027-04-30 |
| 23.x | Planned | [54] | 2024-10-14 | 2025-06-01 |
| 24.x | Planned | Krypton[56] | 2025-04-22 | 2028-04-30 |
Legend: Old version Older version, still maintained Latest version Future release | ||||
New major releases of Node.js are cut from theGitHubmain 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 toLong Term Support(LTS), which gives that version 18 months of active support from the date it is designated LTS. After these 18 months expire, an LTS release receives an additional 12 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.[54]The LTS Working Group manages strategy and policy in collaboration with the Technical Steering Committee of the Node.js Foundation.
Technical details[edit]
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that processes incoming requests in a loop, called theevent loop.
Internals[edit]
Node.js useslibuvunder the hood to handle asynchronous events. Libuv is an abstraction layer for network and file system functionality on both Windows andPOSIX-based systems such as Linux,macOS,OSS onNonStop,and Unix. Node.js relies onnghttp2for HTTP support. As of version 20, Node.js uses theada librarywhich provides up-to-dateWHATWGURLcompliance.As of version 19.5,Node.js uses thesimdutf libraryfor fast Unicode validation and transcoding.As of version 21.3,Node.js uses thesimdjson libraryfor fast JSON parsing.
Threading[edit]
Node.js operates on asingle-threadevent loop,usingnon-blocking I/Ocalls, allowing it to support tens of thousands of concurrent connections without incurring the cost of threadcontext switching.[57]The design of sharing a single thread among all the requests that use theobserver patternis intended for building highly concurrent applications, where any function performing I/O must use acallback.To accommodate the single-threaded event loop, Node.js uses thelibuvlibrary—which, in turn, uses a fixed-sized thread pool that handles some of the non-blocking asynchronous I/O operations.[7]
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 allowvertical scalingby increasing the number ofCPU coresof the machine it is running on without using an additional module, such as cluster,[36]StrongLoop Process Manager,[58]or pm2.[59]However, developers can increase the default number of threads in the libuv thread pool. The serveroperating system (OS)is likely to distribute these threads across multiple cores.[60]Another problem is that long-lasting computations and other CPU-bound tasks freeze the entire event-loop until completion.[citation needed]
V8[edit]
V8 is the JavaScript execution engine which was initially built forGoogle Chrome.It was then open-sourced by Google in 2008. Written inC++,V8 compiles JavaScript source code to native machine codeat runtime.[7]As of 2016, it also includes Ignition, abytecode interpreter.
Package management[edit]
npmis the pre-installed package manager for the Node.js server platform. It installs Node.js programs from thenpm registry,organizing the installation and management of third-party Node.js programs.
Event loop[edit]
Node.js registers with the operating system so the OS notifies it ofasynchronous I/Oevents such as new connections. Within the Node.js runtime, events trigger callbacks and each connection is handled as a smallheap allocation.Traditionally, relatively heavyweight OS processes or threads handled each connection. Node.js uses an event loop for concurrent I/O, instead of processes or threads.[61]In contrast to other event-driven servers,[which?]Node.js's event loop does not need to be called explicitly. Instead, callbacks are defined, and the server automatically enters the event loop at the end of the callback definition. Node.js exits the event loop when there are no further callbacks to be performed.
WebAssembly[edit]
Node.js supportsWebAssemblyand as of Node 14 has experimental support ofWASI,the WebAssembly System Interface.
Native bindings[edit]
Node.js provides a way to create "add-ons" via aC-based API called N-API, which can be used to produce loadable (importable).nodemodules from source code written in C/C++.[62]The modules can be directly loaded into memory and executed from within JS environment as simple CommonJS modules. The implementation of the N-API relies on internal C/C++ Node.js and V8 objects requiring usersto import(#include) Node.js specificheadersinto their native source code.[62]
As the Node.js API is subject to breaking changes at a binary level, modules have to be built and shipped against specific Node.js versions to work properly. To address the issue, third parties have introduced open-sourced С/С++ wrappers on top of the API that partially alleviate the problem. They simplify interfaces, but as a side effect they may also introduce complexity which maintainers have to deal with. Even though the core functionality of Node.js resides in a JavaScript built-in library, modules written in C++ can be used to enhance capabilities and to improve performance of applications.
In order to produce such modules one needs to have an appropriate C++ compiler and necessary headers (the latter are typically shipped with Node.js itself), e.g.,gcc,clangorMSVC++.
The N-API is similar toJava Native Interface.
Project governance[edit]
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."[63]
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.[64]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.[65]
In August 2017, a third of the TSC members resigned due to a dispute related to the project's code of conduct.[66]
| Username | Full Name |
|---|---|
| aduh95 | Antoine du Hamel |
| apapirovski | Anatoli Papirovski |
| benjamingr | Benjamin Gruenbaum |
| BridgeAR | Ruben Bridgewater |
| GeoffreyBooth | Geoffrey Booth |
| gireeshpunathil | Gireesh Punathil |
| jasnell | James M Snell |
| joyeecheung | Joyee Cheung |
| legendecas | Chengzhong Wu |
| marco-ippolito | Marco Ippolito |
| mcollina | Matteo Collina |
| mhdawson | Michael Dawson |
| MoLow | Moshe Atlow |
| RafaelGSS | Rafael Gonzaga |
| richardlau | Richard Lau |
| ronag | Robert Nagy |
| ruyadorno | Ruy Adorno |
| ShogunPanda | Paolo Insogna |
| targos | Michaël Zasso |
| tniessen | Tobias Nießen |
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Further reading[edit]
- Hughes-Croucher, Tom; Wilson, Mike (April 2012),Up and Running with Node.js,O'Reilly Media,ISBN978-1-4493-9858-3
- Ornbo, George (September 2012),Sams Teach Yourself Node.js in 24 Hours,SAMS Publishing,ISBN978-0-672-33595-2
- Teixeira, Pedro (October 2012),Professional Node.js,John Wiley & Sons,ISBN978-1-118-22754-1
- Randal L. Schwartzand Aaron Newcomb (9 January 2013)."Episode 237: Node.js".twit.tv/show/floss-weekly(Podcast).TWiT.tv.Event occurs at 1:08:13.Retrieved9 January2013.
- Gackenheimer, Cory (October 2013),Node.js Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach,Apress,ISBN978-1-4302-6058-5
External links[edit]
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