Get Node.js latest LTS version via CLI

nodejs-latest-lts-version.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -o errexit
set -o pipefail
set -o nounset

# Requirememnts:
# - curl
# - jq
# - cut
# - tr

nodejs_latest_lts_major=$(
  # Fetch Node.js versions metadata
  curl -fsSL https://nodejs.org/dist/index.json | \
  # Reject items with falsey "lts" value | sort by "lts" | get the latest item's "version" value
  jq --raw-output 'map(select(.lts)) | sort_by(.lts) | .[-1].version' | \
  # v20.10.0 => v20
  cut -d '.' -f 1 | \
  # v20 => 20
  tr -d 'v'
)

echo "$nodejs_latest_lts_major" # Prints 20 (as at the time of writing the latest Node.js LTS is 20.x)

# The value may be used to install the latest LTS version, e.g.:
# curl -fsSL "https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_$nodejs_latest_lts_major.x" | sudo -E bash -
# sudo apt-get install -y nodejs