Cache eviction feature for actions/setup-node

[karlhorky]

To be clear, this is not a tool request - it's a feature request for runner-images, requested by @aparnajyothi-y of the actions/setup-node team

Tool name

actions/setup-node

Tool license

MIT

Add or update?

• Add
• Update

Desired version

--

Approximate size

No response

Brief description of tool

Cache eviction feature for @aparnajyothi-y and the rest of the actions/setup-node team, as requested here:

• lts/* installs old LTS version intermittently setup-node#940 (comment)

This will enable purging of old cached LTS versions to avoid the problem that node-version: 'lts/*' installs an outdated version, as described in the issue:

• lts/* installs old LTS version intermittently setup-node#940

URL for tool's homepage

No response

Provide a basic test case to validate the tool's functionality.

No response

Platforms where you need the tool

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions

Runner images where you need the tool

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 12
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022

Can this tool be installed during the build?

No response

Tool installation time in runtime

No response

Are you willing to submit a PR?

No response

[hemanthmanga]

Hi @karlhorky As the runner images team, we believe cache eviction should be handled through tasks, not the runner itself.
Please look into the comment

[karlhorky]

Ok, that's unfortunate for users.

This common lts/* config for actions/setup-node is broken (does not retrieve latest LTS version, even days after release), and if actions/runner-images won't build anything to fix it, it will stay broken:

      - name: Use Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 'lts/*'
          cache: 'pnpm'

Source: actions/setup-node#940 (comment)