Node should run on Debian/Ubuntu-based images without having to manually install libatomic first

[1dEraNCeSIv0]

What is the problem this feature will solve?

Summary

Node 25.0.0 requires the libatomic library, it's in the docs since 25.2.0.

I've tried some current official Ubuntu images (24.04, 25.10, 26.04) and Debian images (12.12, 13.12) and none comes with libatomic installed.

Consequently installing node on Debian or Ubuntu will work, but running any commands will fail.

Why should this be supported

I assume that having a seamless installation experience, at least on major linux distros, is something Node would like to provide. I'm thinking a) install nvm, b) install node via nvm, c) done, you can use node now.

This is also how, for example, the npm docs tell you to install npm. And it no longer works on Debian or Ubuntu based images unless you also install "libatomic".

Debian and Ubuntu are two of the major linux distros. Many projects are using one of their images as the basis for their official docker images. For example, the official Jenkins image is debian based and the latest version (jenkins/jenkins:2.538-jdk21) can not run node 25+, unless you first install "libatomic" into the container that is.

What is the feature you are proposing to solve the problem?

I am not familiar enough with linux or node to tell whether or not node could include libatomic. But if that was possible and practical then that would allow debian and ubuntu based images to run node again without having to install libatomic first.

What alternatives have you considered?

1. nvm could plausibly install libatomic, that said, over at nvm the sentiment was that Node was the place to address this.
2. debian / ubuntu could plausibly include libatomic in their images
3. all projects that provide debian / ubuntu based images and imagine their image could be used to run node could plausibly provide libatomic
4. the end user that wants to run node in any debian / ubuntu based image could plausibly install libatomic

Out of these I've only really considered 1 and 4 real possibilities, though with the folks at nvm saying it's not their job it's either on Node itself or the end user, probably.

[richardlau]

Ref: #37219 (comment)

Upstream V8 avoids this by providing a custom libcxx which includes atomic functions. There is reference in an upstream V8 issue with a desire to retire the option to not use the custom libcxx (which Node.js is currently using), so we may need to switch eventually.