semantic-release command in circleci throws error regarding execa

I am trying to release a package to npm. When CircleCI is trying to run semantic-release it throws the following error:

/home/circleci/src/node_modules/semantic-release/node_modules/execa/index.js:18
    const env = extendEnv ? {...process.env, ...envOption} : envOption;
                             ^^^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token ...

    at exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:53:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:511:25)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:550:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:456:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:415:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:407:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:466:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/circleci/src/node_modules/semantic-release/bin/semantic-release.js:9:13)
    at Module._compile (module.js:541:32)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE

My package.json devDependencies are as follows:

  "devDependencies": {
    "@semantic-release/changelog": "^5.0.1",
    "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer": "^8.0.1",
    "@semantic-release/git": "^9.0.0",
    "@semantic-release/github": "^7.0.7",
    "@semantic-release/npm": "^7.0.5",
    "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator": "^9.0.1",
    "eslint": "^6.8.0",
    "eslint-config-prettier": "^6.11.0",
    "eslint-plugin-prettier": "^3.1.3",
    "jest": "^25.5.1",
    "marked": "^0.4.0",
    "npm-audit-resolver": "^2.2.0",
    "prettier": "^2.0.5",
    "semantic-release": "^16.0.4",
    "semantic-release-cli": "^5.3.1"
  },

I have set up environment variables for github and npm in CircleCI and have used them in my CircleCI config file. I have also have npm ci step before running semantic-release in my CircleCI config.

Wondering if anyone has encountered this issue and have resolved this? (I can provide more information in case needed. )

Solution

I resolved the problem myself. I suspected that the problem is due to some version incompatibities of semantic-release plugins that I was using with the library. I tried different versions of semantic-release but I had no success.

Finally, I checked the Nodejs version (node --version) of my CircleCI executor which was a machine executor (image: ubuntu-1604:201903-01). I found that the node version in that executor was so old (v6.x.x). I needed that machine executor to run my tests as I had to mock some aws features through other docker images running on the machine. However, could change the executor to a Nodejs docker executor for the release step. So, I did this and problem was resolved.

For example, I added something like the following at the beginning of my CircleCI config:

version: 2.1

default_executor: &default_executor
  working_directory: ~/repo
  machine:
    image: ubuntu-1604:201903-01

release_executor: &release_executor
  working_directory: ~/repo
  docker:
    - image: circleci/node:10.18

Then, in the release step I did this before running the npm run semantic-release:

  release:
    <<: *release_executor

Hopefully, this solution will help others as well :)