install-artifact-from-github

install-artifact-from-github

This is a no-dependency micro helper for developers of binary addons for Node. It is literally two small one-file utilities integrated with GitHub releases. The project solves two problems:

• save-to-github-cache saves a binary artifact to a Github release according to the platform, architecture, and Node ABI.
  • Designed to use with GitHub actions.
• install-from-cache retrieves a previously saved artifact, tests if it works properly, and rebuilds a project from sources in the case of failure.

In general, it can save your users from a long recompilation and, in some cases, even save them from installing build tools. By using GitHub facilities (Releases and Actions) the whole process of publishing and subsequent installations are secure, transparent, painless, inexpensive, or even free for public repositories.

How to install

Installation:

npm install --save install-artifact-from-github

How to use

In your package.json (pseudo-code with comments):

{
  // your custom package.json stuff
  // ...
  "scripts": {
    // your scripts go here
    // ...

    // creates an artifact (from save-artifact-to-github)
    "save-to-github": "save-to-github-cache --artifact build/Release/ABC.node",

    // installs using pre-created artifacts
    "install": "install-from-cache --artifact build/Release/ABC.node",

    // used by "install" to test the artifact
    "verify-build": "node scripts/verify-build.js"

    // used by "install" to rebuild from sources
    "rebuild": "node-gyp rebuild"
  }
}

Examples of GitHub actions can be found in the documentation.

Documentation

The full documentation is available in the wiki.

Release history

• 1.1.2 technical release: updated docs.
• 1.1.1 numerous bugfixes to please Github REST API.
• 1.1.0 moved save-to-github here from a separate project, reduced 3rd-party dependencies.
• 1.0.2 fixed a yarn-specific bug.
• 1.0.1 fixed a bug in the environment variable parameter.
• 1.0.0 initial release (extracted from node-re2).