Regression 25.2.0 - Cannot initialize local storage without a --localstorage-file path

Version

25.2.0

Platform

any

Subsystem

No response

What steps will reproduce the bug?

Touching localStorage global variable produce the problem

Ref: webpack/webpack#20119 (we fixed this, but jest is broken)
Ref: jestjs/jest#15888 (jest issue)

Another ref where logic is broken - jantimon/html-webpack-plugin#1880

And more

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

Always

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

No warning

What do you see instead?

Any workarounds

Additional information

No response

Code to reproduce:

const myVars = Object.keys(globalThis);

for (const item of myVars) {
	console.log(globalThis[item]);
}

Very often you need to run through all global variables, especial in tools like testing frameworks/bundlers/etc, so it should not throw an error when you touch this

This also broke Docusaurus production builds: facebook/docusaurus#11545

The production build issue is caused by this npm "eval" lib we use (1m download, but legacy/archived and won't be patched): https://github.com/pierrec/node-eval/blob/master/eval.js

This also broke our dev server through html-webpack-plugin: jantimon/html-webpack-plugin#1880

Very often you need to run through all global variables, especial in tools like testing frameworks/bundlers/etc, so it should not throw an error when you touch this

The core assumption that enumerating the global object should never raise an exception, or that it should be side-effect-free at all, is not a valid one. This action would already throw in Node.js >=19 in builds without crypto support, and can definitely throw in browser environments. (Indeed, it also throws in Node.js <=24 if experimental local storage is enabled.)

I would have preferred this change to land in a major release for sure.

Ditto, although it was technically an "unchange" – the specification-compliant throw-on-access behaviour existed in v24, albeit behind a flag.

@Renegade334

@Renegade334 I am not against such changes, but this is definitely a breaking change for this release, as you can see many well-known packages are broken...

temporarily disable tests with latest node while it has a regression

Consider passing --no-experimental-webstorage as a flag or in your NODE_OPTIONS to unblock yourself if you're not using localStorage.

This bit us when building Docusaurus in Anubis

Given the breakage, it seems like #60351 should be reverted and the less severe bug it addressed (#60303) can be revisited.

Made my argument here to motivate a revert: #60351 (comment)

TLDR:

the web spec behavior is questionable and probably historical
server runtimes !== web
Deno doesn't throw by default
this should probably be discussed in TC55 (Winter TC) to align the behavior of server runtimes

@slorber

@slorber Agreed, at least we need time to migrate, Node.js can output a warning and after resolving this problem in TC55 change this behavior in the next major release, so we will have time to refactor code and make releases

Rather than a pure reversion, the more useful approach for backing off this change (and one which would be consistent with the presence tests mentioned previously) would be to switch from option 2 to option 1 from #60303, ie. expose undefined rather than throwing. This should at least not re-introduce the previous break for actual storage consumers.

Do we know why CITGM didn't flag this?

Do we know why CITGM didn't flag this?

It did. #60677 (comment). The Release WG discussed, and based on the change being deliberate and in an experimental feature we decided not to block the release.

Thanks for reverting the change!

As far as I understand, you may still keep this change as-is for v26, which means we are delaying the breakage. It gives us time to upgrade the existing problematic call sites.

Can you please help us migrate common patterns, such as cloning {...global}?

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Regression 25.2.0 - Cannot initialize local storage without a `--localstorage-file` path #60704

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How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

What do you see instead?

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Regression 25.2.0 - Cannot initialize local storage without a --localstorage-file path #60704

Description

Version

Platform

Subsystem

What steps will reproduce the bug?

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

What do you see instead?

Additional information

Activity

alexander-akait commented on Nov 13, 2025

slorber commented on Nov 13, 2025

Renegade334 commented on Nov 13, 2025

alexander-akait commented on Nov 13, 2025

aduh95 commented on Nov 13, 2025

Xe commented on Nov 14, 2025

cjihrig commented on Nov 14, 2025

slorber commented on Nov 14, 2025

alexander-akait commented on Nov 14, 2025

Renegade334 commented on Nov 14, 2025

SimenB commented on Nov 14, 2025

richardlau commented on Nov 14, 2025

10 remaining items

slorber commented on Nov 17, 2025

SimenB commented on Nov 18, 2025

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Regression 25.2.0 - Cannot initialize local storage without a `--localstorage-file` path #60704