Add tag LTS suffix

[webysther]

Is possible add this tag, sample:

6.11.3-lts, 6.11-lts, 6-lts, boron-lts
8.5.0-lts, 8.5-lts, 8-lts, lts (when 8 comes LTS)

More info: https://github.com/nodejs/LTS

[Starefossen]

I am neutral to having an LTS suffix, but there is definitively an overhead of adding it as we will have to support the existing tag naming convention as well.

I am definitively opposed to having an lts tag since there is nothing "long term" nor "stable" about it since it will move to the next lts release as soon as the next one is out – essentially breaking lots of stuff.

[webysther]

"...essentially breaking lots of stuff" for using :latest or :alpine too.

Overhead to created automated tag or for build? To me, layers keep cached and tags works like alias like with any other tag.

[chorrell]

RE: boron-lts I thought "boron" and other named releases implied LTS?

[webysther]

@chorrell Without boron-lts or argon-lts how i switch between LTS? We have argon and boron.

[Starefossen]

This is similar to how Ubuntu and Debian images are tagged. I have seen no other official images that has explicitly named any of their tags LTS.

[webysther]

@Starefossen In no official repository is the LTS tag used, for me it is important to use only LTS (despite all the discussion about the term itself) by guaranteeing a longer support and other stuff. Is there something I am not realizing to use LTS more automatically?

[tianon]

In "mediawiki", "sonarqube", and "xwiki" the maintainers have opted for an "lts" tag (and "latest" then points to the most recent release). However, in "ubuntu", the "latest" tag simply points to the most recent LTS instead (since that's what users who don't know what they need ought to be using).

[Starefossen]

@webysther the problem with an LTS tag for a programming language like Node.js is that this tag will b be moved to the next LTS version as soon as the next one is out, and since there are one major release in-between LTS versions there will be seriously (and sudden) breakage for all project relying on the lts tag – this is similar to what happens with the latest tag which is highly discouraged to use.

@tianon thanks for you input, I guess an lts tag makes sense for some software applications, and I am much more inclined to move the latest tag to the latest LTS version; I guess it is not an option to remove the lateset tag altogether.

[SimenB]

I like having latest point to the latest LTS. Can we do that from when 8 is LTS and onwards (so as to not break current latest usage)?

[pesho]

I like having latest point to the latest LTS. Can we do that from when 8 is LTS and onwards (so as to not break current latest usage)?

👍 I like that as well.

[LaurentGoderre]

What would be the tag for the version past LTS if not latest? I think latest should be to the latest available version and lts should be on the latest LTS version. If that doesn't meet someone's need, they should use version numbers.

[pesho]

@LaurentGoderre the version past LTS can be specified using version numbers/names.

I'm against an lts tag because using it would be a bad practice, and we shouldn't encourage it. People who target LTS do it because they value stability. However, a tag which can jump between LTS versions (e.g. 6.x to 8.x) is anything but "stable".

[chorrell]

I agree. I've been discouraging the use of latest for as long as I've been working on this. Creating another similar tag is going to lead to all kinds of issues.

The original request of the OP was to add an LTS suffix. It seems redundant given that we already tag LTS releases with their names (boron etc). Then again 6.11.3-lts, 6.11-lts or 6-lts is at least more meaningful to most people than boron