feat!(node): add support for Node18, drop Node12, update Node16

[louis-bompart]

Fixes #2255

Changes

• BREAKING: Remove support for Node 12 (and all the code relative to it)
• Add support for Node 18
• Updated Node 16 version

Notes:

• Uses https://github.com/louis-bompart/runner_L0/ for the fixtures. Some changes were required (updates of dependencies+ node bump 12 to 18).
  I recommend moving the fixtures in this repo: this will allow public contributors to have a one-stop shop (or just to clone another branch, and not a whole other repo).
• Didn't manually test. Relied 💯 on CI. See run

[louis-bompart]

To monitor: nodejs/build#3077
Win-arm64 official NodeJS build should be discussed in this meeting/issue

[sxa]

FYI We're working towards it in nodejs/build#3046 but as always with a new platform it's dependent on people and systems to be able to elevate it to an official release, so for now pulling from the unofficial builds repo is the only way to get a versioned download from the nodejs project.

[louis-bompart]

Thanks for the heads-up @sxa , I somehow missed this one while digging up 😅

[louis-bompart]

Yeah so. I didn't find the version I needed in vstsagenttools.blob.core.windows.net
So I just replaced it with the good ol' build from bona fide NodeJS.

[remal]

@fhammerl, what's the plan for having Node 18? Can we have node18 runtime for GitHub actions?

[fhammerl]

@remal With Node16 security updates coming to an end this October, we're of course planning on embedding a new Node.js version, but I can't give an exact date as of today.

[MikeMcC399]

@fhammerl

With Node16 security updates coming to an end this October, we're of course planning on embedding a new Node.js version, but I can't give an exact date as of today.

Perhaps you could answer into https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/53217 when your plans are more concrete? Especially as this here is a closed PR and enhancement requests are specifically pointed to the discussion groups according to the issues template.

Node.js Release Schedule states Sep 11, 2023 as end-of-life transition for Node.js 16, which is earlier than the October date which you mentioned.

[TomasHubelbauer]

I'd be very grateful for more engagement in open community discussions as at the moment for people interested in this update, there are two closed issues with maintainer activity one has to discover and subscribe to themselves (this and #2255) whereas the open and officially recommended discussion forum sees no maintainer activity and information shared there is dug for these closed threads.

It works when one puts effort into discovering this information but it feels like things should flow the opposite direction. Just a friendly request though, at the end of the day I am happy with any information we get regardless where it comes from 🙏

[kroese]

I created an issue ( #2619 ) about this, because this is taking way too long.