bun

What is bun?

Bun is a fast all-in-one JavaScript runtime, bundler, transpiler, and package manager. It aims to provide a comprehensive toolset for modern JavaScript development, focusing on performance and developer experience.

What are bun's main functionalities?

JavaScript Runtime

Bun can execute JavaScript code directly, similar to Node.js. This makes it suitable for running scripts and building server-side applications.

console.log('Hello, Bun!');

Bundler

Bun can bundle JavaScript and TypeScript files, optimizing them for production. This command takes an entry file and outputs the bundled code to a specified directory.

bun build src/index.js --outdir dist

Transpiler

Bun can transpile TypeScript to JavaScript, making it easier to work with modern JavaScript features while maintaining compatibility with older environments.

bun transpile src/index.ts --outdir dist

Package Manager

Bun includes a package manager that can install dependencies from the npm registry. This command installs the React library into your project.

bun install react

Other packages similar to bun

node

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. It is widely used for building server-side applications and has a vast ecosystem of packages. Compared to Bun, Node.js is more mature and has broader community support, but it may not be as fast in certain scenarios.

webpack

Webpack is a popular module bundler for JavaScript applications. It allows developers to bundle JavaScript files for usage in a browser. While Webpack is highly configurable and powerful, it can be complex to set up compared to Bun's simpler bundling process.

esbuild

Esbuild is an extremely fast JavaScript bundler and minifier. It is known for its speed and efficiency, making it a strong competitor to Bun in terms of performance. However, Esbuild focuses primarily on bundling and minification, whereas Bun offers a broader range of features.

typescript

TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds static types. While Bun can transpile TypeScript to JavaScript, TypeScript itself is a language and compiler that provides type safety and modern JavaScript features. Bun's transpiler feature is similar but integrated into its all-in-one toolset.

npm

Npm is the default package manager for Node.js. It is used to install, share, and manage dependencies in JavaScript projects. Bun's package manager aims to be faster and more efficient, but npm has a larger ecosystem and is more widely adopted.

README

Bun

Bun is a fast all-in-one JavaScript runtime. https://bun.sh

Install

npm install -g bun

Upgrade

bun upgrade

Supported Platforms

• macOS, arm64 (Apple Silicon)
• macOS, x64
• macOS, x64 (without AVX2 instructions)
• Linux, arm64
• Linux, x64
• Linux, x64 (without AVX2 instructions)
• Windows
• Windows (without AVX2 instructions)

Future Platforms

• Unix-like variants such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.
• Android and iOS