Skip to content

Consider dropping support for Node.js <18.17.0 #175

@wojtekmaj

Description

@wojtekmaj

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?

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    No labels
    No labels

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions