What's the relevance of warnings on 'deprecated' Node versions?

[DierkDroth]

I just updated all my GitHub actions to get rid of the warnings that Node 16 would be deprecated and actions needed to be replaced with newer ones which are using Node 20.

This also made me updating this particular action to 'actions/setup-node@v4.0.2' (= latest). However, when I look at the GitHub logs I see this:

Attempting to download 14...
Acquiring 14.21.3 - x64 from https://github.com/actions/node-versions/releases/download/14.21.3-4202774076/node-14.21.3-linux-x64.tar.gz
Extracting ...

... which even is way older than Node 16.

So I wonder what the GitHub warnings that Node 16 would be deprecated is about, if even the 'latest actions' are installing Node 14?!?

I would appreciate any clarification on that matter. Thanks in advance

[HarithaVattikuti]

Hello @DierkDroth
Thank you for creating this issue. We will investigate it and get back to you as soon as we have some feedback.

[aparnajyothi-y]

Hello @DierkDroth, Thank you for creating this issue.

The actions/setup-node action allows you to specify the Node.js version that should be used in your GitHub workflow. If you're seeing logs that indicate Node.js 14 is being downloaded, it's likely that either the version is specified in your workflow file or the default version that downloaded on the selected runner.
Could you please provide the workflow that you are using to confirm.
The action will install whatever version you specify, whether that version is maintained or not. It's always a good idea to use a maintained version of Node.js, as unmaintained versions do not receive security updates.

The relevance of warnings on 'deprecated' Node versions is to inform users that certain versions of Node.js are no longer maintained. When a Node.js version reaches its end-of-life (EOL), it will no longer receive updates, including important security patches. In the context of actions/setup-node, the action will still allow you to use deprecated Node.js versions in your workflows. However, it's generally recommended to update your workflows to use a maintained version of Node.js. This will ensure you're running your code in a secure environment and can take advantage of the latest features and improvements in Node.js.

[DierkDroth]

@aparnajyothi-y thanks for getting back to me. I'll review my workflows again to make sure I'm on latest and will get back to you if I still saw the warnings on the latest version of the actions.

[aparnajyothi-y]

Hello @DierkDroth, Thank you for the response. Proceeding to close this issue as the question clarified and feel free to reach us to reopen the issue if you still see the warnings on the latest version of the actions.