Future Compatibility

Compatibility Statement

In acknowledgement of the effort required to change dependent software, node-config will:

• Use semver versioning to promote stable deployments,
• Limit backward incompatibilities in favor of alternate solutions,
• Provide ample warning for upcoming incompatible releases,
• Attempt to detect and output errors on incompatible usage, and
• Post all upcoming incompatibilities on this page

Semver Versioning

To promote stable deployments, node-config uses semver versioning when expressing deployment versions.

This makes it appropriate to run tests for a particular MAJOR.MINOR version, and be confident about specifying a wildcard PATCH version. For example, if the current version you've tested with is 1.3.4, your node-config dependency in package.json could be:

"dependencies": {
  "config": ">=1.3.4 <1.4.0",
  ...

without introducing significant risk. You can also specify "config": "1.3.4", if you prefer version stability to bug fixes.

Ample Warning

A minimum of one year will be given between the time of an incompatibility announcement (below) and the release of the version containing the incompatibility.

If it's possible to detect your application using a future incompatibility, a one-time warning per application run will be placed onto console.error for each type of incompatibility.

Once the incompatibility is introduced, an error will be placed into console.error if an incompatible usage is detected.

Upcoming Incompatibilities

Version 2.0 - (not before July, 2015)

• Less Cluttered Top Level Namespace (announced June, 2014)
  Utility functions available under the config.util namespace since version 1.0 will no longer be available at the top level config namespace. Starting at Version 2 they will only be available under config.util, and the only words in the Reserved Words list will be get, has, and util.

• Watch utility deprecated (announced July, 2014)
  The watch method was built as a notification of changed configuration values. Since node-config 1.0, configuration changes are no longer advised, and the watch function was kept in but deprecated with a warning. The watch function will not be available in Version 2.0.