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doc: add policy for “placeholder” executables #52107

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doc: add policy for executables
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Update distribution.md 
Co-authored-by: Ruben Bridgewater <ruben@bridgewater.de>
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@GeoffreyBooth @BridgeAR
GeoffreyBooth and BridgeAR authored Apr 3, 2024
commit 6268575f0b5c33ba04c8b4ec1997dd582d27e74b
16 changes: 4 additions & 12 deletions doc/contributing/distribution.md
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Expand Up @@ -28,15 +28,7 @@ that doing so is not a breaking change.

## Placeholder executables

Installing Node.js will not create "placeholder" executables for package
managers. A placeholder executable is a binary, symlink or script that has a
name that refers to software that is not distributed with Node.js, but instead
would be downloaded when the executable is run. For example, Node.js will not
create `yarn` or `download_yarn` placeholder executables that will download Yarn
when run. Node.js includes `npm` and `npx` executables, but these are not
placeholders because the name of the executable refers to software that is
contained within the Node.js distribution.

Adding placeholder executables that refer to other types of software besides
package managers will first require an affirmative vote of the Node.js Technical
Steering Committee.
A placeholder executable is a binary, symlink or script that has a name that refers to software that is not distributed with Node.js, but instead would be downloaded when the executable is run.

Adding placeholder executables has a high boundary to be included in Node.js as it has a strong impact on the security side as well as the problem that it provides a strong support for a specific project outside of Node.js, which Node.js tries to avoid. Node.js is not going to support any outside project without a very strong reason to do so.
It therefore requires an affirmative vote of the Node.js Technical Steering Committee to include any such placeholder executables.