API changes between v0.4 and v0.6

When editing this page please be as detailed as possible. Examples are encouraged!

Changed:

• Cygwin build is no longer supported. Use native windows builds instead.
• Buffer
  • The length optional third parameter was added to Buffer.write()
• child_process
  • The customFds option to the child_process.spawn method is deprecated. Only the values -1, 0, 1, 2 will work with customFds now and only if those are TTY file descriptors. You can however use the stdinStream, stdoutStream, and stderrStream options to achieve similar functionality.
  • You can no longer send a file descriptor through a unix pipe. Instead you can send a handle via child_process.fork.
• dgram
  • The 'unix_dgram' type to the dgram.createSocket() is no longer supported. The Unix domain datagram is not the Internet domain datagram (UDP) which stays supported.
• dns
  • dns.lookup now uses getaddrinfo in a thread pool instead of c-ares. The rest of the methods in the DNS module still use c-ares. Using the system resolver for common look ups is useful because it hooks into system MDNS lookups and /etc/host files and nsswitch, etc. Previously when using dns.lookup on invalid domain names like "****" the command returned an EBADNAME error. getaddrinfo does not differentiate between invalid domains and ENOTFOUND (AKA NXDOMAIN). Therefore dns.lookup now returns ENOTFOUND when given malformated domain names like "*****".
• events
  • C++ node::EventEmitter has been removed. Instead use node::MakeCallback()
  • EventEmitter.removeAllListeners() allows to remove all listeners at once.
• fs
  • fs.symlink takes an optional mode argument, which can either be 'dir' or 'file'. The default is 'file'. This argument is only needed for Windows (it's ignored on other platforms).
  • fs.watchFile is replaced by fs.watch
• http
  • http.request() and http.get() use Connection: Keep-Alive by default.
  • http.Agent.appendMessage was removed.
  • http.getAgent() was removed. Use http.globalAgent instead.
  • Not httpAgent but http.ClientRequest emits 'upgrade' event.
• https
  • https.request() and https.get() with default Agent ignore key, cert and ca options. Use custom Agent.
• Module system
  • The require.paths have been removed (use NODE_PATH environment variable instead).
• net
  • net.Server.listenFD() was no longer supported.
• process

  • process.ENV was removed. Use process.env instead.

  • process.ARGV was removed. Use process.argv instead.

  • process.binding('stdio') was removed. This was a private API. You shouldn't have been using it in the first place.

  • process.binding('net') was removed.

  • process.stdin, process.stdout and process.stderr are getters now. You can override it (if you really want to) like this:

    process.__defineGetter__('stdout', function() {
      return your_object;
    });

  • process.memoryUsage().vsize was removed. You don't need it.

• Default Timezone changed. No longer adjusts for local timezone. Examples below are in the node repl in eastern timezone.

  • 0.4.x:

    new Date("2011-06-06")
    > Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT
    new Date("2011-06-06").getTime()
    > 1307332800000

  • 0.5.10:

    new Date("2011-06-06")
    > Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT
    new Date("2011-06-06").getTime()
    > 1307318400000

• V8 (v3.1 to v3.7)
  • RegExp was no longer a Function. Use RegExp.exec() instead.

Added:

• assert
  • assert(val) as a shorthand for assert.ok(val)
• Buffer
  • 'hex' encoding.
  • Buffer.readInt8()/readInt16LE()/readInt16BE()/readInt32LE()/readInt32BE()
  • Buffer.readUInt8()/readUInt16LE()/readUInt16BE()/readUInt32LE()/readUInt32BE()
  • Buffer.readFloatLE()/readFloatBE()/readDoubleLE()/readDoubleBE()
  • Buffer.writeInt8()/writeInt16LE()/writeInt16BE()/writeInt32LE()/writeInt32BE()
  • Buffer.writeUInt8()/writeUInt16LE()/writeUInt16BE()/writeUInt32LE()/writeUInt32BE()
  • Buffer.writeFloatLE()/writeFloatBE()/writeDoubleLE()/writeDoubleBE()
  • Buffer.fill()
  • Typed Arrays
• child_process
  • child_process.fork()
• cluster
  • node cluster see https://github.com/joyent/node/blob/d2698d182271c77bc5bca44a9cee625d9372301f/doc/api/cluster.markdown
• crypto
  • crypto.createDiffieHellman(), crypto.pbkdf2(), crypto.randomBytes()
• fs
  • fs.utimes()/utimesSync(), fs.futimes()/futimesSync()
  • start option to fs.createReadStream() and fs.createWriteStream().
• http
  • http.ClientRequest.setTimeout()/setNoDelay()/setSocketKeepAlive()
• Module system
  • .json module.
  • module.require()
• net
  • net.connect()
  • net.Socket.remotePort, bytesRead, bytesWrite
• os
  • os.arch(), os.platform(), os.uptime(), os.getNetworkInterfaces()
• path
  • path.relative()
• process
  • process.arch, process.uptime()
• tls
  • tls.CleartextStream.address(), remoteAddress, remotePort.
  • tls.CryptoStream.getSession() and session option to tls.connect().
  • tls.Server supports NPN (Next Protocol Negotitation) and SNI (Server Name Indication).
• util
  • util.format(), util.isArray(), util.isRegExp(), uitl.isDate(), util.isError().
• zlib module http://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/zlib.html