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Official Node.js v10.x runtime support on AWS Lambda! aws.amazon.com/about-aws/what… Supported on docker-lambda too (and AWS SAM CLI). Many interesting things about this release, strap in:
1. It's "10.x", so only the semver major is pinned. This is a Good Thing™, unlike the previous releases ("8.10", "6.10", "4.3") where AWS fell behind official Node.js releases because they pinned the minor. No more missing out on feature updates 👍
2. The nodejs10.x runtime uses the same HTTP-polling model as custom runtimes under the hood – it matches the python3.7 and ruby2.5 runtimes in this regard. I suspect AWS will stick with this model for all new runtimes going forward.
3. It's the first runtime running on an entirely new base OS, which is big news! This time they're using Amazon Linux 2 🎉 . And it's VERY svelte. Like, I'm talking one of the most minimal glibc Linux bases I've ever seen. It doesn't even have `find` 🙀
4. The minimal base (and updated OS) means that your software that currently works on, say, a Node.js 8.10 Lambda could break spectacularly if you migrate – particularly if you rely on outside binaries (say you call out to ps, tar, etc) or libraries (eg, bzip2, libcurl, etc)
5. If everything in your Lambda is pure JS you should be good 🤞 If not, then you can use tools like docker-lambda and AWS SAM to ensure that you've bundled up your dependencies correctly. You'll probably want to create layers for them.
6. There's a decent chance existing layers won't work in the new runtime – the current layer ecosystem will need to split into Amazon Linux 1 (old) and Amazon Linux 2 (new) compatible layers.
7. This new minimal base OS raises a bunch of questions about packaging best practices. Like this tutorial on creating custom runtimes *would not work as is* on the new Lambda base: docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/… – because there's no `curl`! You'd have to figure out how to bundle it.
8. The new base OS is 800MB smaller than the old base, which is great for cold starts, but also potentially 800MB of dependencies that you now need to bundle yourself if you were relying on them. We're gonna need bigger package limits! #awswishlist
9. Going forward I foresee a much greater need for Lambda Layers. Watch github.com/mthenw/awesome… Expect to see an explosion of layers (essentially one per yum package?) With the ability to squash them. Time for a new tool perhaps (I'm working on it!) Fin ✌️
