Question

App Platform Node Build Pack can't use node version 18+

I’m trying to use nodejs 18.x.x on the app platform but can’t. Is the buildpack limited to nodejs 16/17?

If so when will it be updated to support 18+?

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Kamal Nasser
DigitalOcean Employee
DigitalOcean Employee badge
• February 27, 2023
Pinned Answer

Hello folks, I wanted to provide a update on this. This is a very high priority for us given the EOL timelines.

The reason Node v18 is not supported with Buildpack builds currently is because it requires Ubuntu 20.04 or higher (due to an underlying version requirement on the glibc dependency) while our buildpack build system is based on Ubuntu 18.04.

This is taking longer than it sounds like it should because we need to upgrade the entire Buildpack build system to a newer version of Ubuntu before we can add support for Node v18. Ubuntu 18.04 also reaches end of life in April, 2023 so I promise we are doing our best to get this done ASAP.

I know this isn’t the update everyone has been looking for, but I’m hoping we’ll have better news for you soon.

We will post another update here once this is available and also on the official changelog at https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/#latest-updates.

EricWVGG • November 17, 2022

Gatsby v5 requires Node 18. This needs to be addressed soon.

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Damien Duhamel • January 3, 2023

Node.js v18.x.x is still not supported in App Platform while buildpack supports it since may 2022. Moreover v18.x.x is the active and LTS version since october 2022. Adding support of v18.x.x would be highly appreciated ! I know I can use a Dockerfile, but I use App Platform precisely so as not to have to deal with this kind of thing.