binary-downloader

binary-downloader

This module downloads remote binaries according to requirements for a given version of Node.js.

It also simplifies requiring these modules. It aims at Node.js v4 compatibility (and that's why it uses older versions of the tar and semver modules).

The goal of this module is to provide a simple and lightweight way of handling pre-built native modules when no local build is possible.

Installation

npm install -S binary-downloader

Usage

This module uses the same binary field in package.json as node-pre-gyp. However, it only supports the following tags:

• platform
• libc
• arch
• node_napi_label

For other tags, feel free to open an issue or a PR!

Also, to get the require string to the downloaded binary, you will have to do the following:

const PackageJSON = require('./package.json');
const binding_path = Binary.getPath(PackageJSON.binary);
const Binding = require(binding_path);

(You are, of courses, free to get the binary part of the package.json by any other way that works for you!);

Differences with node-pre-gyp

The great node-pre-gyp module can handle the lifecycle of a native module. It can help publishing it. It allows falling back on building the module locally if download failed and many more.

The current module just tries its best to download a native module and make it available to use. Nothing more, nothing less. It is therefore way lighter and probably constitutes a good alternative to node-pre-gyp if you want to ship a commercial (or at least) pre-vuilt version of a module. At least, it serves my needs here.