Debian future release strategy proposal Rev2
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100
- Issue type
- Feature
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Tech stack
- debian, docker, nodejs
- Domain
- devops, infrastructure, release
Research direction
Start with versions.json and the linked Debian releases, Debian LTS architecture, and Docker Engine support references. Compare the proposed Node.js 22, 24, 26, and future 27 policies against the listed transition dates and architectures; done means the release strategy and any required update-script changes are agreed and documented.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
- Follows on from https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/issues/2398
- Relates to https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/issues/2397
Current situation
According to the settings in versions.json Node.js 22 & 24 are set to use Debian 12 (bookworm/oldstable) as default, Node.js 26 sets Debian 13 (trixie/stable) as default.
Images are built for each of the Debian major versions: 11 (bullseye/oldoldstable), 12 (bookworm/oldstable) & 13 (trixie/stable) (see Debian Releases).
| Node.js | 11 (bullseye) | 12 (bookworm) | 13 (trixie) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | used | default | used |
| 24 | used | default | used |
| 26 | used | used | default |
Debian releases transition through milestones:
- Release
- End of Life (EOL) after 3 years
- End of LTS after another 2 years, 5 years in total
When Debian transitions from EOL to LTS, the LTS support team typically define and publish LTS support architectures that are a subset of the architectures supported during the original release phase.
Docker Engine typically removes a Debian release from their required version list when that version transitions to End of LTS.
Current release line suggestions
For existing release lines Node.js 22, 24 & 26, retain Debian version support as long as covered by upstream Debian & Docker support.
Transitions
From Debian releases in the year 2026:
| Debian | Transition | Date | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 (bookworm) | End of Life (EOL) | 2026-06-10 | review supported architecture and drop if needed |
| 11 (bullseye) | End of LTS | 2026-08-31 | drop from distribution |
Current bookworm / bookworm-slim architectures
From versions.json
| Node.js | 12 (bookworm) |
|---|---|
| 22 | amd64, arm32v7, arm64v8, ppc64le, s390x |
| 24 | amd64, arm64v8, ppc64le, s390x |
| 26 | amd64, arm64v8, ppc64le, s390x |
Future release line suggestions
For the future Node.js 27, Alpha Oct 2026, followed by Node.js 27.0.0 in April 2027, consider restricting to support Debian stable and oldstable (2 versions) only. This would require changes in update scripts.
- Dominant language
- Dockerfile
- Stars
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- Forks
- 2k
- Avg merge
- 10h 19m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 16
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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