[doodlesdev]

Why rely on nvm to pin the NodeJS version you are using? That's natively supported as a field in your package.json [0], assumimg you're using npm/yarn/pnpm (you are).

Example:

  {
    "engines": {
      "node": ">=0.10.3 <15"
    }
  }

Also, god forbid you are actually running anything using Node 8 and whatever dependencies you have there, that's a recipe for security disaster.

The truth is that to use the NodeJS ecosystem we must have the discipline to keep projects up-to-date. I personally have a policy to update all my NodeJS projects at least yearly, even if they are abandoned, this includes all dependencies and the NodeJS version. Because I do it often most of the times there are not many problems to keep it working, and consequently updating is fast, but if I leave it for a few years and then come back I'll be in for a (bad) surprise.

[0]: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v9/configuring-npm/package-json?v...

[telotortium]

Mostly because you want your project to just work. You've tested your project with a certain version of Node, and you want to ensure that you use the same exact version when you come back to the project in a year and want to perform some minor updates. You can set the node constraint in package.json, but that doesn't install the correct version of Node for you, unlike nvm.

[doodlesdev]

Well that makes sense, as long as the developer running the code has nvm installed. Does nvm-windows read and install the versions in these nvmrc files? If it does your strategy is indeed pretty cool and I might start doing it myself. I wonder if there's any way to force specific versions of NodeJS without relying on nvm or some compatible tool.

edit: someone here in this thread suggested Volta [0] which seems literally like what I was looking for. No need for the nvmrc as it simply follows what's in the engine property of the package.json. Even better is that it's not a weird massive shell script but instead an actual program written in Rust. I'll have to try it out sometime.

[0]: https://volta.sh/

[telotortium]

Wow, Volta does look like exactly what I've been looking for.

[zapt02]

npm can't install the correct version of Node to use automatically, but nvm can using "nvm i"