How do I choose the latest node version?

[samuelgozi]

I'm sorry if this turns out to be a stupid question, but how do I choose the latest Node version available?
When generating stuff like code coverage(for example), it doesn't matter to me which Node version is used and I rather use the latest one.

[fregante]

I was looking for this too but I think there's no way. The version seems to be passed to semver for validation and never once seems to refer to tags like latest/stable/lts etc

setup-node/lib/installer.js

Line 53 in e565252

const c = semver.clean(versionSpec) || '';

[samuelgozi]

@fregante Thanks for the help. I guess I'll have to set it manually, or just forget about it.

[fregante]

Solution

If you use a node docker image instead of setup-node, I think you can use node:current and node:lts (untested)

jobs:
  my_job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container: node:latest
    steps:
    - run: npm install
    - run: npm test

Or you can use n, my go-to Node version installer:

jobs:
  my_job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - run: n stable
    - run: npm install
    - run: npm test

However the container: node:latest solution was 30 seconds faster for me

[samuelgozi]

@fregante Thanks that might help!

[DanielRuf]

It would be the latest now.

See https://hub.docker.com/_/node?tab=description

[DanielRuf]

I checked it and '*' as Node version seems to work. Can you verify that?
We should document this and some more examples.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/semver/v/7.1.1#x-ranges-12x-1x-12-

[DanielRuf]

Running the docker container might not be a solution, especially when you have to run arbitrary docker commands as part of your tests which will fail then.