Virtual-environments: Update node 8.x on Windows

[hashtagchris]

Tool information

• Tool name: node
• Add or update? Add
• Desired version: v8.16.2
• Approximate size:

Currently v8.10.0 is installed on Windows. That comes with npm v5.6.0, which doesn't support the npm ci command. npm install can be used as a workaround, but its slower.

Virtual environments affected

• [ ] macOS 10.15
• [ ] Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
• [ ] Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
• [x] Windows Server 2016 R2
• [x] Windows Server 2019

Can this tool be installed during the build?
npm install -g npm can be used to update npm. Completes in ~10 seconds probably.

Are you willing to submit a PR?
Not at this time

Related issue: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/issues/42

[cschleiden]

In the past, npm install -g npm has been difficult on Windows, leading to projects like https://github.com/felixrieseberg/npm-windows-upgrade#upgrade-npm-on-windows, just to keep in mind when doing anything to upgrade here.

[joshmgross]

Once this is resolved, we should update the node starter template to go back to using npm ci

[kaylangan]

We've updated the installed version to 12. Does that fix this issue or do you still need Node 8 latest?

[hashtagchris]

We still need Node 8 latest, as https://github.com/actions/starter-workflows/blob/master/ci/node.js.yml references it.

[richardlau]

We still need Node 8 latest, as https://github.com/actions/starter-workflows/blob/master/ci/node.js.yml references it.

FWIW I've submitted a PR (https://github.com/actions/starter-workflows/pull/307) to remove Node.js 8 from the starter-workflow as it went End-of-Life at the end of last year.

[kaylangan]

I think the right approach is what @richardlau suggested. Closing this out.