[nschonni]

Description

Adds the new Node.js 27 Alpha release.

Motivation and Context

Converts the stackbrew as a first step to make the external file calls a bit easier.
Drops local version.json metadata for the source of truths upstream in the nodejs/Release and individual release's index.json metadata.

Testing Details

Example Output(if appropriate)

Types of changes

• Documentation
• Version change (Update, remove or add more Node.js versions)
• Variant change (Update, remove or add more variants, or versions of variants)
• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• Other (none of the above)

Checklist

• My code follows the code style of this project.
• My change requires a change to the documentation.
• I have updated the documentation accordingly.
• I have read the CONTRIBUTING.md document.
• All new and existing tests passed.

[nschonni]

@MikeMcC399 here is what the stackbrew will add for the new alpha release (with the rest of the file unchanged.

Tags: 27.0.0-alpha.0.0.0-alpine3.23
Architectures: amd64, arm64v8
GitCommit: 3bd48058ca58ebb613646bd1aa225f44032e47e4
Directory: 27/alpine3.23

Tags: 27.0.0-alpha.0.0.0-alpine3.24
Architectures: amd64, arm64v8
GitCommit: 3bd48058ca58ebb613646bd1aa225f44032e47e4
Directory: 27/alpine3.24

Tags: 27.0.0-alpha.0.0.0-bookworm
Architectures: amd64, arm64v8, ppc64le
GitCommit: 3bd48058ca58ebb613646bd1aa225f44032e47e4
Directory: 27/bookworm

Tags: 27.0.0-alpha.0.0.0-bookworm-slim
Architectures: amd64, arm64v8, ppc64le
GitCommit: 3bd48058ca58ebb613646bd1aa225f44032e47e4
Directory: 27/bookworm-slim

Tags: 27.0.0-alpha.0.0.0-trixie
Architectures: amd64, arm64v8, ppc64le, s390x
GitCommit: 3bd48058ca58ebb613646bd1aa225f44032e47e4
Directory: 27/trixie

Tags: 27.0.0-alpha.0.0.0-trixie-slim
Architectures: amd64, arm64v8, ppc64le, s390x
GitCommit: 3bd48058ca58ebb613646bd1aa225f44032e47e4
Directory: 27/trixie-slim

Still need to resolve the buildmatrix version comparison issue

[nschonni]

tried to use a real semver regex, but figured out that those are multi-match, and this was "good enough"

[nschonni]

Made a call not to include any plain 27, 27.0.0, etc tags during the Alpha, and only have specific versions that people are explictly opting into.

[nschonni]

This wasn't used, and was copy/pasted from the nodejs/Release values anyway.
There are sometimes gaps there, but that isn't fixed by have a value here

[MikeMcC399]

@nschonni

I wasn't expecting this to happen so fast, so thanks for putting this together!

I like that there are no floating tags for this Alpha release! As you know this is still very much in general discussion with lots of different opinions! (nodejs/node#67135 & nodejs/Release#1171)

I'm not sure if Alpine Linux 3.23 should be included in 27 Alpha as this will be short-lived. Alpine Linux plans for new releases every May and November, so I'd expect an Alpine Linux 3.25 in the next weeks, which we'd want to transition to and then drop Alpine Linux 3.23.

There should also be some documentation added to the README about Alpha.

I'm also not sure if we should release this one, or just treat it as a dry-run exercise and wait for the next Alpha release. There hasn't been any user specifically asking for an Alpha Docker build so far.

There is no release plan in https://github.com/nodejs/Release/issues for Node.js 27 Alpha, but I'd expect a 2-week cadence like previous current versions have had, which would mean Nov 11, 2026 for the next one. Maybe @sxa from the releasers team can help us understand the plans?

[MikeMcC399]

I already left some comments about the Alpha release.

I'm wondering if the stackbrew enhancement commit should be extracted into its own PR, since this is a general improvement which helps also for other release lines, not just the 27 Alpha.

[MikeMcC399]

Also I just discovered that there is no published link to the documentation. nodejs/nodejs.org#9254

[nschonni]

Yeah, I started this PR as a small stackbrew one, but ended up morphing it into the 27 one, since I needed that part to test out how it would handle the Alpha concept.
Might push a last cleanup for my own comments, but I can also open a separate PR without the bump in parallel

[nschonni]

I think this could likely land as-is with the minimal v27.
Maybe the outstanding question, is whether a new minimal alpha tag should be introduced. Don't think a wide array of new alpha-* tags are needed, but if people want to start seeing if the latest in CI, we might need a few.