Node.JS News

Joyent Cloud just announced: Node.js v0.8 is around the corner. There’s only 1, maybe 2 more 0.7 nodejs releases, and then we’re going stable.

Here are all small API changes between NodeJS v0.6 and Node.js v0.8, give a try and update your npm modules!

Deprecated:

• http.Client()
• path.{exists,existsSync} was moved to fs.{exists,existsSync}
• tty.setRawMode(mode) was moved to tty.ReadStream#setRawMode() (i.e. process.stdin.setRawMode())

Removed:

• waf build system - node.js will be using gyp now * If you are a native module author, migrate to node-gyp ASAP!
• sys throws

Changed:

• process * process.stdin.on('keypress') will not be emitted by default, as it’s an internal API.

• cluster

  • cluster.fork() no longer return a child_process.fork() object use cluster.fork().process to get the object.
  • the 'death' event on the cluster object is renamed to 'exit'.
  • the kill() method is renamed to destroy().
  • the CLUSTER_WORKER_ID env is now called CLUSTER_UNIQUE_ID, but you should not have used that anyway.
  • workers do now kill them self when they accidentally losses there connection with the master.

• http

  • http.Server emits 'connect' event instead of 'upgrade' when the CONNECT method is requested.
  • http.ServerResponse sends Date: header by default. You can disable it by setting response.sendDate to false.
  • http.ClientRequest emits 'connect' event instead of 'request' when the CONNECT method is responded.

• child_process

  • arguments and options arguments of child_process.fork() became an option.
  • the ‘exit’ event is now emitted right after the child process exits. It no longer waits for all stdio pipes to be closed.
  • the ‘close’ event was added that has is emitted after the child has exited and all the stdio pipes are closed.

• readline * arguments of rl.createInterface became an option as rl.createInterface(options) but still took an old style as rl.createInterface(input, output, completer)

• url * url.parse() now parses IPv6 addresses.

• fs * path.exists() and path.existsSync() has moved to fs.exists() and fs.existsSync().

• console * console.timeEnd now throws when there’s no such label

Added:

• buffer * 'utf16le' encoding.

• child_process

  • silent option to child_process.fork() - stdout and stderr won’t be shared with parent.
  • .disconnect() when using child_process.fork() this will allow the child to die graceful.

• cluster

  • 'fork', 'online', 'listening', and 'setup' events.
  • Worker object which is provided from cluster.workers (in the master) or cluster.worker (in the worker).
  • env optional argument to cluster.fork().
  • cluster.setupMaster() and cluster.settings.
  • cluster.disconnect() and worker.disconnect().
  • worker.uniqueID what there before was internally known as workerID.
  • worker.suicide flag set when worker disconnect or die, indicate if this was an accidental death.

• crypto

  • crypto.getDiffieHellman().
  • cipher.setAutoPadding() and decipher.setAutoPadding().
  • ciphers option to crypto.createCredentials().

• domain * see http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.7.9/api/domain.html

• fs

  • fs.appendFile() and fs.appendFileSync().
  • wx, wx+, ax, and ax+ modes to fs.open() and fs.openSync().

• http

  • callback optional argument to server.close().
  • sendDate property to http.ServerResponse.

• https * ciphers, rejectUnauthorized option to https.request() and https.get().

• net

  • net.connect(options, [connectionListener).
  • callback optional argument to server.close().

• process

  • process.abort().
  • process.hrtime(), hi-res timer with up to nanosecond granularity.

• querystring * querystring.parse(str, [sep], [eq], [options]).

• stream * 'utf16le' and 'ucs2' encoding to setEncoding().

• tls

  • tls.CLIENT_RENEG_LIMIT and tls.CLIENT_RENEG_WINDOW to mitigate session renegotiation attacks
  • tls.connect(options, [secureConnectionListener]).
  • ciphers, rejectUnauthorized and socket options to tls.connect().
  • cleartextStream.getCipher() was added in the api doc and open to the public.

• zlib * dictionary option.