How can I specify the required Node.js version in

Question

I have a Node.js project that requires Node version 12 or higher. Is there a way to specify this in the packages.json file, so that the installer will automatically check and inform the users if they need to upgrade?

Answer 1

Add

to package.json

  "engines": {
    "node": ">=10.0.0",
    "npm": ">=6.0.0"
  },

to the file .npmrc (close to package.json, same directory)

engine-strict=true

Answer 2

Just like said Ibam, engineStrict is now deprecated. But I've found this solution:

check-version.js:

import semver from 'semver';
import { engines } from './package';

const version = engines.node;
if (!semver.satisfies(process.version, version)) {
  console.log(`Required node version ${version} not satisfied with current version ${process.version}.`);
  process.exit(1);
}

package.json:

{
  "name": "my package",
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=50.9" // intentionally so big version number
  },
  "scripts": {
    "requirements-check": "babel-node check-version.js",
    "postinstall": "npm run requirements-check"
  }
}

Find out more here: https://medium.com/@adambisek/how-to-check-minimum-required-node-js-version-4a78a8855a0f#.3oslqmig4

.nvmrc

And one more thing... A dotfile '.nvmrc' can be used for requiring specific node version (but I didn't try it yet) - https://github.com/creationix/nvm#nvmrc

Answer 3

I think you can use the "engines" field:

{ "engines" : { "node" : ">=0.12" } }

As you're saying your code definitely won't work with any lower versions, you probably want the "engineStrict" flag too:

{ "engineStrict" : true }

Documentation for the package.json file can be found on the npmjs site

Update

engineStrict is now deprecated, so this will only give a warning. It's now down to the user to run npm config set engine-strict true if they want this.

Answer 4

There's another, simpler way to do this:

1. npm install Node@8 (saves Node 8 as dependency in package.json)
2. Your app will run using Node 8 for anyone - even Yarn users!

This works because node is just a package that ships node as its package binary. It just includes as node_module/.bin which means it only makes node available to package scripts. Not main shell.

See discussion on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/housecor/status/962347301456015360