esm: remove specifier resolution flag by GeoffreyBooth · Pull Request #44859 · nodejs/node · GitHub

This removes the --experimental-specifier-resolution flag. The loaders team has been planning on removing this as soon as it became possible to replicate the behavior via a custom loader, and today it is: https://github.com/nodejs/loaders-test/tree/main/commonjs-extension-resolution-loader. That loader passes the same tests as the flag’s tests from the Node codebase. This PR both removes the flag and adds a reference to that loader to the docs.

Review requested:

@nodejs/modules

LGTM!

@GeoffreyBooth I imagine this is either semver major because it removes a flag and might break some folks, or else semver minor because the flag is for an experimental feature so a breaking change there is OK but it now introduces a new stable/non-experimental feature. Assuming I'm not completely misguided, can you apply the right semver- label to this PR?

I imagine this is either semver major because it removes a flag and might break some folks, or else semver minor because the flag is for an experimental feature so a breaking change there is OK but it now introduces a new stable/non-experimental feature. Assuming I'm not completely misguided, can you apply the right semver- label to this PR?

@Trott since this is experimental, I think no semver label should be added (although I might be wrong on that?), but since we don't want to break that relies on the flag (they shouldn't), I've added dont-land- labels to ensure this doesn't land on any current or LTS release line, and only lands on v19.x. Does that make sense?

I’ve added dont-land- labels to ensure this doesn’t land on any current or LTS release line, and only lands on v19.x. Does that make sense?

I think @aduh95 has it right, but I defer to others on what the proper procedure is per our policy. I thought experimental features could disappear at any time and it wouldn’t be semver-major or minor.

We might want to backport this when we backport making the Loaders API stable, but we can revisit that then.

I think this should be a major change. We know that many users are using this flag and it will certainly surprise them and cause them to pin the minor if it is removed in a minor version.

I dunno about policy, but because of its usage I would advocate for major. But we want to land it in 19.0.0 anyway, so no problem regardless?

👍 on not backporting to earlier major/LTS lines. This is likely a change that needs explicit communication so people can prepare for a version upgrade that removes the flag.

In practice, experimental status hasn’t seemed relevant for anything that’s gained adoption.

Notable Changes: doc: * graduate webcrypto to stable (Filip Skokan) #44897 esm: * remove specifier resolution flag (Geoffrey Booth) #44859 http: * (SEMVER-MAJOR) use Keep-Alive by default in global agents (Paolo Insogna) #43522 build: * (SEMVER-MAJOR) remove dtrace & etw support (Ben Noordhuis) #43652 * (SEMVER-MAJOR) remove systemtap support (Ben Noordhuis) #43651 deps: * (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: update V8 to 10.7.193.13 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 Deprecation and Removals: * deprecate url.parse() (Rich Trott) #44919 * (SEMVER-MAJOR) runtime deprecate exports double slash maps (Guy Bedford) #44495 * (SEMVER-MAJOR) runtime deprecate coercion to integer in `process.exit()` (Daeyeon Jeong) #44711 Semver-Major Commits: * [53f73d1] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) build: enable V8's trap handler on Windows (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [06aaf8a] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) build: reset embedder string to "-node.0" (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [aa3a572] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) build: remove dtrace & etw support (Ben Noordhuis) #43652 * [38f1e27] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) build: remove systemtap support (Ben Noordhuis) #43651 * [2849283] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) crypto: remove non-standard `webcrypto.Crypto.prototype.CryptoKey` (Antoine du Hamel) #42083 * [a1653ac] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) crypto: do not allow to call setFips from the worker thread (Sergey Petushkov) #43624 * [fd36a8d] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: update llhttp to 8.1.0 (Paolo Insogna) #44967 * [89ecddd] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: bump minimum ICU version to 71 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [66fe446] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: V8: cherry-pick 0cccb6f27d78 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [88ed027] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: V8: cherry-pick 7ddb8399f9f1 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [26c651c] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: V8: cherry-pick 1b3a4f0c34a1 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [c8ff2df] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: V8: cherry-pick b161a0823165 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [7a8fa2d] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: fix V8 build on Windows with MSVC (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [83b0aaa] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: fix V8 build on SmartOS (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [7a952e8] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: silence irrelevant V8 warning (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [6bd756d] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) deps: update V8 to 10.7.193.13 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [03fb789] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) events: add null check for the signal of EventTarget (Masashi Hirano) #43153 * [a4fa526] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) fs: add directory autodetection to fsPromises.symlink() (Livia Medeiros) #42894 * [bb4891d] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) fs: add validateBuffer to improve error (Hirotaka Tagawa / wafuwafu13) #44769 * [950a441] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) fs: remove coercion to string in writing methods (Livia Medeiros) #42796 * [41a6d82] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) fs: harden fs.readSync(buffer, options) typecheck (LiviaMedeiros) #42772 * [2275faa] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) fs: harden fs.read(params, callback) typecheck (LiviaMedeiros) #42772 * [29953a0] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) fs: harden filehandle.read(params) typecheck (LiviaMedeiros) #42772 * [4267b92] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) http: use Keep-Alive by default in global agents (Paolo Insogna) #43522 * [0324529] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) inspector: introduce inspector/promises API (Erick Wendel) #44250 * [8027099] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) lib: enable global CustomEvent by default (Daeyeon Jeong) #44860 * [f529f73] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) lib: brand check event handler property receivers (Chengzhong Wu) #44483 * [6de2673] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) lib: enable global WebCrypto by default (Antoine du Hamel) #42083 * [73ba883] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) lib: use private field in AbortController (Joyee Cheung) #43820 * [7dd2f41] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) module: runtime deprecate exports double slash maps (Guy Bedford) #44495 * [22c39b1] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) path: the dot will be added(path.format) if it is not specified in `ext` (theanarkh) #44349 * [587367d] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) perf_hooks: expose webperf global scope interfaces (Chengzhong Wu) #44483 * [364c0e1] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) perf_hooks: fix webperf idlharness (Chengzhong Wu) #44483 * [ada2d05] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) process: runtime deprecate coercion to integer in `process.exit()` (Daeyeon Jeong) #44711 * [e0ab8dd] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) process: make process.config read only (Sergey Petushkov) #43627 * [481a959] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) readline: remove `question` method from `InterfaceConstructor` (Antoine du Hamel) #44606 * [c9602ce] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src: use new v8::OOMErrorCallback API (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [19a70c1] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src: override CreateJob instead of PostJob (Clemens Backes) #44741 * [fd52c62] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src: use V8_ENABLE_SANDBOX macro (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [c10988d] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src: use non-deprecated V8 inspector API (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [3efe901] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src: update NODE_MODULE_VERSION to 111 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [77e5856] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src: turn embedder api overload into default argument (Alena Khineika) #43629 * [dabda03] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src: per-environment time origin value (Chengzhong Wu) #43781 * [2e49b99] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) src,test: disable freezing V8 flags on initialization (Clemens Backes) #44741 * [2b32985] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) stream: use null for the error argument (Luigi Pinca) #44312 * [36805e8] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) test: adapt test-repl for V8 update (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [96ef257] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) test: adapt test-repl-pretty-*stack to V8 changes (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [71c193e] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) test: adapt to new JSON SyntaxError messages (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [b5f1564] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) test: rename always-opt flag to always-turbofan (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [1acf033] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) test: fix test-hash-seed for new V8 versions (Michaël Zasso) #44741 * [57ff476] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) test: remove duplicate test (Luigi Pinca) #44051 * [77def91] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) tls,http2: send fatal alert on ALPN mismatch (Tobias Nießen) #44031 * [4860ad9] - (SEMVER-MAJOR) tools: update V8 gypfiles for 10.7 (Michaël Zasso) #44741 PR-URL: #44626 Co-authored-by: Ruy Adorno <ruyadorno@google.com>

how to import ".node" now ?

I try

export const load = async (url, context, defaultLoad) => {   
 return defaultLoad(url, context)
}

will cause TypeError [ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION]: Unknown file extension ".node"

You can use module.createRequire.

how to import ".node" now ?

I try
export const load = async (url, context, defaultLoad) => {   
 return defaultLoad(url, context)
}
will cause TypeError [ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION]: Unknown file extension ".node"

I fixed this, use @u6x/jsext now can instead of --experimental-specifier-resolution node

fox example #!/usr/bin/env -S node --loader=@u6x/jsext

u6x

It would not work when use npx xxx to use the package, as it would throw the error @u6x/jsext module not found.

The shebang does not seem to support load module

@usrtax

Why remove if the replacement doesn't work? resolve package used in mentioned loader does not support "exports" which is used for every single esm package in the wild. Is there an alternative?

@TrySound customisation hooks do support packageJson.exports, so I'm not sure what you're encountering. Could you please provide an example?

p.s. "Why remove" it's been deprecated for over a decade.

p.s. "Why remove" it's been deprecated for over a decade.

It's never been deprecated, it has always been experimental. The documentation warns about the use of experimental APIs:

node/doc/api/documentation.md

Lines 31 to 34 in 1022c6f

    
           > Stability: 1 - Experimental. The feature is not subject to 
        
           > [semantic versioning][] rules. Non-backward compatible changes or removal may 
        
           > occur in any future release. Use of the feature is not recommended in 
        
           > production environments.

@TrySound customisation hooks do support packageJson.exports, so I'm not sure what you're encountering. Could you please provide an example?

p.s. "Why remove" it's been deprecated for over a decade.

This specific loader does not support "exports"
https://github.com/nodejs/loaders-test/tree/main/commonjs-extension-resolution-loader

See browserify/resolve#224

It's never been deprecated, it has always been experimental. The documentation warns about the use of experimental APIs:

I understand this. Though it was handy to have builtin solution. Could be used with shebang. Transitively installed packages cannot be used in shebang which relies on cwd to resolve loader.

Though anyway seems like shebang arguments do not work in linux so no big deal. I switched to bundling and running without loaders.

I checked the latest docs for the command line options of node LTS https://nodejs.org/api/cli.html, but it seems that this PR removed the documentation for the option experimental-specifier-resolution without adding the documentation for its replacement option loader. This makes it difficult to discover.

GeoffreyBooth added module Issues and PRs related to the module subsystem. esm Issues and PRs related to the ECMAScript Modules implementation. loaders Issues and PRs related to ES module loaders labels Oct 2, 2022

GeoffreyBooth requested review from JakobJingleheimer and aduh95 October 2, 2022 03:28

nodejs-github-bot added lib / src Issues and PRs related to general changes in the lib or src directory. needs-ci PRs that need a full CI run. labels Oct 2, 2022

JakobJingleheimer approved these changes Oct 2, 2022

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aduh95 added experimental Issues and PRs related to experimental features. dont-land-on-v14.x labels Oct 2, 2022

Trott added the notable-change PRs with changes that should be highlighted in changelogs. label Oct 2, 2022

GeoffreyBooth force-pushed the remove-experimental-specifier-resolution branch from 2f0a90a to 7b0f9d0 Compare October 2, 2022 04:18

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GeoffreyBooth force-pushed the remove-experimental-specifier-resolution branch from 7b0f9d0 to 53e5e45 Compare October 3, 2022 05:04

esm: remove specifier resolution flag

b295148

GeoffreyBooth force-pushed the remove-experimental-specifier-resolution branch from 53e5e45 to b295148 Compare October 3, 2022 05:09

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dfabulich mentioned this pull request Oct 18, 2022

Create README.md nodejs/loaders-test#13

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sasakiy84 mentioned this pull request Oct 19, 2022

loaderAPIの使用 sasakiy84/myblog#1

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App crashing at the very beginning. saisilinus/node-express-mongoose-typescript-boilerplate#32

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Support Node 19 rockcarver/frodo-cli#186

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vscheuber added a commit to vscheuber/frodo-cli that referenced this pull request Feb 17, 2023

implement recommendations in nodejs/node#44859

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Support Node.js v19 RainEggplant/chatgpt-telegram-bot#14

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Feature request: build as esmodule aws-powertools/powertools-lambda-typescript#521

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Fix typo in --specifier-resolution=[node] #39249

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Move node-cli to be pure ESM, use Conf for persistent storage iTwin/auth-clients#203

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Support Node 20+ fgnass/node-dev#303

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node 20 segfaults when our loader runs #50280

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What should I start doing? barhun/extensionless#5

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Fix module resolution GameFeeder/GameFeeder#614

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[FEATURE] Add support for NodeJS v20 LTS etherspot/skandha#209

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esm: remove specifier resolution flag by GeoffreyBooth · Pull Request #44859 · nodejs/node · GitHub

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esm: remove specifier resolution flag - #44859

esm: remove specifier resolution flag#44859nodejs-github-bot merged 1 commit intonodejs:mainnodejs/node:mainfrom GeoffreyBooth:remove-experimental-specifier-resolutionGeoffreyBooth/node:remove-experimental-specifier-resolutionCopy head branch name to clipboard

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