Skip to content

doc: reorganize platform list #61569

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
kleisauke wants to merge 5 commits into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
+60 −44
Open

doc: reorganize platform list #61569

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
5 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
baf788b
doc: reorganize platform list into separate headings
kleisauke Mar 2, 2026
b61ffda
doc: update kernel and musl reqs for Alpine
kleisauke Jan 28, 2026
79b2fbe
doc: update kernel and glibc reqs for loong64/riscv64
kleisauke Mar 2, 2026
712a3fd
doc: clarify version column in experimental tier
kleisauke Mar 2, 2026
522875e
doc: shorten riscv64 compilation note
kleisauke Apr 13, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
104 changes: 60 additions & 44 deletions BUILDING.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -12,8 +12,10 @@ file a new issue.

* [Supported platforms](#supported-platforms)
* [Input](#input)
* [Strategy](#strategy)
* [Platform list](#platform-list)
* [Tier 1](#tier-1)
* [Tier 2](#tier-2)
* [Experimental](#experimental)
* [Supported toolchains](#supported-toolchains)
* [Official binary platforms and toolchains](#official-binary-platforms-and-toolchains)
* [OpenSSL asm support](#openssl-asm-support)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -72,57 +74,69 @@ which it belongs.

Node.js relies on V8 and libuv. We adopt a subset of their supported platforms.

### Strategy

There are three support tiers:

* **Tier 1**: These platforms represent the majority of Node.js users. The
Node.js Build Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test coverage.
Test failures on tier 1 platforms will block releases.
* **Tier 2**: These platforms represent smaller segments of the Node.js user
base. The Node.js Build Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test
coverage. Test failures on tier 2 platforms will block releases.
Infrastructure issues may delay the release of binaries for these platforms.
* **Experimental**: May not compile or test suite may not pass. The core team
does not create releases for these platforms. Test failures on experimental
platforms do not block releases. Contributions to improve support for these
platforms are welcome.

Platforms may move between tiers between major release lines. The table below
will reflect those changes.

### Platform list

Support for different platforms are organized into three tiers. Platforms may
move between tiers between major release lines. The tables below will reflect
those changes.

Node.js compilation/execution support depends on operating system, architecture,
and libc version. The table below lists the support tier for each supported
combination. A list of [supported compile toolchains](#supported-toolchains) is
also supplied for tier 1 platforms.
and libc version.

**For production applications, run Node.js on supported platforms only (Tier 1 or 2).**

Node.js does not support a platform version if a vendor has expired support
for it. In other words, Node.js does not support running on End-of-Life (EoL)
platforms. This is true regardless of entries in the table below.

| Operating System | Architectures | Versions | Support Type | Notes |
| ---------------- | ---------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 10, RHEL 8 |
| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 3.10, musl >= 1.1.19 | Experimental | e.g. Alpine 3.8 |
| GNU/Linux | x86 | kernel >= 3.10, glibc >= 2.17 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 10 |
| GNU/Linux | arm64 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 10, RHEL 8 |
| GNU/Linux | armv7 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 24 |
| GNU/Linux | ppc64le >=power9 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | Tier 2 | e.g. Ubuntu 20.04, RHEL 8 |
| GNU/Linux | s390x >=z14 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | Tier 2 | e.g. RHEL 8 |
| GNU/Linux | loong64 | kernel >= 5.19, glibc >= 2.36 | Experimental | |
| GNU/Linux | riscv64 | kernel >= 5.19, glibc >= 2.36 | Experimental | GCC >= 14 or Clang >= 19 for native builds[^5] |
| Windows | x64 | >= Windows 10/Server 2016 | Tier 1 | [^2],[^3] |
| Windows | arm64 | >= Windows 10 | Tier 2 | |
| macOS | x64 | >= 13.5 | Tier 2 | Until early 2028[^8]. For notes about compilation see [^4] |
| macOS | arm64 | >= 13.5 | Tier 1 | |
| SmartOS | x64 | >= 18 | Tier 2 | |
| AIX | ppc64be >=power9 | >= 7.2 TL04 | Tier 2 | |
| FreeBSD | x64 | >= 13.2 | Experimental | |
| OpenHarmony | arm64 | >= 5.0 | Experimental | |
platforms. This is true regardless of entries in the tables below.

#### Tier 1

These platforms represent the majority of Node.js users. The Node.js Build
Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test coverage. Test failures on
tier 1 platforms will block releases.

A list of [supported compile toolchains](#supported-toolchains) is also supplied
for tier 1 platforms.

| Operating System | Architectures | Versions | Notes |
| ---------------- | ---------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | e.g. Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 10, RHEL 8 |
| GNU/Linux | arm64 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | e.g. Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 10, RHEL 8 |
| Windows | x64 | >= Windows 10/Server 2016 | [^2],[^3] |
| macOS | arm64 | >= 13.5 | |

#### Tier 2

These platforms represent smaller segments of the Node.js user base. The
Node.js Build Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test coverage.
Test failures on tier 2 platforms will block releases. Infrastructure issues
may delay the release of binaries for these platforms.

| Operating System | Architectures | Versions | Notes |
| ---------------- | ---------------- | --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| GNU/Linux | ppc64le >=power9 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | e.g. Ubuntu 20.04, RHEL 8 |
| GNU/Linux | s390x >=z14 | kernel >= 4.18[^1], glibc >= 2.28 | e.g. RHEL 8 |
| Windows | arm64 | >= Windows 10 | |
| macOS | x64 | >= 13.5 | Until early 2028[^8]. For notes about compilation see [^4] |
| SmartOS | x64 | >= 18 | |
| AIX | ppc64be >=power9 | >= 7.2 TL04 | |

#### Experimental

May not compile or test suite may not pass. The core team does not create
releases for these platforms. Test failures on experimental platforms do not
block releases. Contributions to improve support for these platforms are
welcome.

| Operating System | Architectures | Versions[^9] | Notes |
| ---------------- | ---------------- | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 6.6, musl >= 1.2.4 | e.g. Alpine 3.19 |
| GNU/Linux | x86 | kernel >= 3.10, glibc >= 2.17 | Downgraded as of Node.js 10 |
| GNU/Linux | armv7 | kernel >= 4.18, glibc >= 2.28 | Downgraded as of Node.js 24 |
| GNU/Linux | loong64 | kernel >= 6.8, glibc >= 2.39 | e.g. Ubuntu 24.04 |
| GNU/Linux | riscv64 | kernel >= 6.8, glibc >= 2.39 | GCC >= 14 or Clang >= 19[^5] |
| FreeBSD | x64 | >= 13.2 | |
| OpenHarmony | arm64 | >= 5.0 | |

<!--lint disable final-definition-->

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -162,6 +176,8 @@ platforms. This is true regardless of entries in the table below.
be compatible with both Apple Silicon-based and Intel-based macOS versions but
they will be untested.

[^9]: Older kernel or libc versions may work.

<!--lint enable final-definition-->

### Supported toolchains
Expand Down