Deno 2.4 restores JavaScript bundling subcommand

Deno 2.4, the latest version of Deno Land’s JavaScript and TypeScript runtime, has been released with the restoration of the deno bundle subcommand for creating single-file JavaScript bundles.

Announced July 2, Deno 2.4 also stabilizes Deno’s built-in OpenTelemetry support for collecting and exporting telemetry data, and offers easier dependency management, Deno Land said. Current users of Deno can upgrade to Deno 2.4 by running the deno upgrade command in their terminal. Installation instructions for new users can be found here.

Deno 2.4 restores the deno bundle subcommand for creating single-file JavaScript bundles from JavaScript or TypeScript. This command supports both server-side and browser platforms and works with NPM and JSR (JavaScript Registry) dependencies. Automatic tree-shaking and minification are supported via the esbuild bundler. Future plans call for adding a runtime to make bundling available programmatically. Additionally, plugins are to be added for customizing how the bundler processes modules during the build process.

Also in Deno 2.4, OpenTelemetry support, which auto-instruments the collection of logs, metrics, and traces for a project, is now stable. OpenTelemetry support was introduced in Deno 2.2 in February. Improving dependency management in Deno 2.4, a new deno update subcommand lets developers update dependencies to the latest versions. The command will update NPM and JSR dependencies listed in deno.json or package.json files to the latest semver-compatible versions.  

Elsewhere in Deno 2.4:

The Deno environment now can be modified with a new --preload flag that executes code before a main script. This is useful when a developer is building their own platform and needs to modify globals, load data, connect to databases, install dependencies, or provide other APIs.

Node global variables were added, including Buffer, global, setImmediate, and clearImmediate. An --unstable-node-globals flag is no longer needed for exposing this set of globals.

Support for Node.js APIs has again been improved.

A new environment variable, DENO_COMPAT=1, was introduced that will tell Deno to enable a set of flags to improve ergonomics when using Deno in package.json projects.

fetch now works over Unix and Vsock sockets.