node-gyp is a cross-platform command-line tool written in Node.js for compiling native addon modules for Node.js. It uses node.js's build system and requires Python, making it a complex but powerful tool for building and managing native modules.
Building native addon modules
This command compiles the native addon module for the current platform. It needs to be run in the root directory of the module.
node-gyp rebuildConfiguration
This command generates appropriate project build files for the current platform. It can be used before 'node-gyp build' to configure the project.
node-gyp configureCompiling
This command compiles the native addon module using the generated build files. It should be run after 'node-gyp configure'.
node-gyp buildCleaning
This command removes any build artifacts or temporary files created during the build process.
node-gyp cleannode-pre-gyp allows for publishing and installing Node.js C++ addons from binaries. It is similar to node-gyp but focuses on the end-user experience by facilitating the deployment of pre-compiled binaries.
neon-cli is a tool for building native Node.js modules with Rust. It provides an alternative to node-gyp for developers who prefer Rust over C++ for writing high-performance Node.js native modules.
cmake-js is a Node.js native addon build tool which works like node-gyp but uses CMake for building the native modules. It is useful for projects that already use CMake as their build system.
node-ninja is a small build system with a focus on speed. It is similar to node-gyp but uses the Ninja build system instead of Make or Visual Studio project files.
node-gyp is a cross-platform command-line tool written in Node.js for compiling
native addon modules for Node.js. It bundles the gyp
project used by the Chromium team and takes away the pain of dealing with the
various differences in build platforms. It is the replacement to the node-waf
program which is removed for node v0.8. If you have a native addon for node that
still has a wscript file, then you should definitely add a binding.gyp file
to support the latest versions of node.
Multiple target versions of node are supported (i.e. 0.8, ..., 4, 5, 6,
etc.), regardless of what version of node is actually installed on your system
(node-gyp downloads the necessary development files or headers for the target version).
You can install with npm:
$ npm install -g node-gyp
You will also need to install:
python (v2.7 recommended, v3.x.x is not supported)makepython (v2.7 recommended, v3.x.x is not supported) (already installed on macOS)Command Line Tools via Xcode. You can find this under the menu Xcode -> Preferences -> Locations (or by running xcode-select --install in your Terminal)
gcc and the related toolchain containing makeInstall all the required tools and configurations using Microsoft's windows-build-tools using npm install --global --production windows-build-tools from an elevated PowerShell or CMD.exe (run as Administrator).
Install tools and configuration manually:
v3.x.x is not supported), and run npm config set python python2.7 (or see below for further instructions on specifying the proper Python version and path.)npm config set msvs_version 2017If the above steps didn't work for you, please visit Microsoft's Node.js Guidelines for Windows for additional tips.
If you have multiple Python versions installed, you can identify which Python
version node-gyp uses by setting the '--python' variable:
$ node-gyp --python /path/to/python2.7
If node-gyp is called by way of npm and you have multiple versions of
Python installed, then you can set npm's 'python' config key to the appropriate
value:
$ npm config set python /path/to/executable/python2.7
To compile your native addon, first go to its root directory:
$ cd my_node_addon
The next step is to generate the appropriate project build files for the current
platform. Use configure for that:
$ node-gyp configure
Auto-detection fails for Visual C++ Build Tools 2015, so --msvs_version=2015
needs to be added (not needed when run by npm as configured above):
$ node-gyp configure --msvs_version=2015
Note: The configure step looks for the binding.gyp file in the current
directory to process. See below for instructions on creating the binding.gyp file.
Now you will have either a Makefile (on Unix platforms) or a vcxproj file
(on Windows) in the build/ directory. Next invoke the build command:
$ node-gyp build
Now you have your compiled .node bindings file! The compiled bindings end up
in build/Debug/ or build/Release/, depending on the build mode. At this point
you can require the .node file with Node and run your tests!
Note: To create a Debug build of the bindings file, pass the --debug (or
-d) switch when running either the configure, build or rebuild command.
Previously when node had node-waf you had to write a wscript file. The
replacement for that is the binding.gyp file, which describes the configuration
to build your module in a JSON-like format. This file gets placed in the root of
your package, alongside the package.json file.
A barebones gyp file appropriate for building a node addon looks like:
{
"targets": [
{
"target_name": "binding",
"sources": [ "src/binding.cc" ]
}
]
}
Some additional resources for addons and writing gyp files:
node-gyp responds to the following commands:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
help | Shows the help dialog |
build | Invokes make/msbuild.exe and builds the native addon |
clean | Removes the build directory if it exists |
configure | Generates project build files for the current platform |
rebuild | Runs clean, configure and build all in a row |
install | Installs node header files for the given version |
list | Lists the currently installed node header versions |
remove | Removes the node header files for the given version |
node-gyp accepts the following command options:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
-j n, --jobs n | Run make in parallel |
--target=v6.2.1 | Node version to build for (default=process.version) |
--silly, --loglevel=silly | Log all progress to console |
--verbose, --loglevel=verbose | Log most progress to console |
--silent, --loglevel=silent | Don't log anything to console |
debug, --debug | Make Debug build (default=Release) |
--release, --no-debug | Make Release build |
-C $dir, --directory=$dir | Run command in different directory |
--make=$make | Override make command (e.g. gmake) |
--thin=yes | Enable thin static libraries |
--arch=$arch | Set target architecture (e.g. ia32) |
--tarball=$path | Get headers from a local tarball |
--devdir=$path | SDK download directory (default=~/.node-gyp) |
--ensure | Don't reinstall headers if already present |
--dist-url=$url | Download header tarball from custom URL |
--proxy=$url | Set HTTP proxy for downloading header tarball |
--cafile=$cafile | Override default CA chain (to download tarball) |
--nodedir=$path | Set the path to the node source code |
--python=$path | Set path to the python (2) binary |
--msvs_version=$version | Set Visual Studio version (win) |
--solution=$solution | Set Visual Studio Solution version (win) |
node-gyp responds to environment variables or npm configuration
npm_config_OPTION_NAME for any of the
options listed above (dashes in option names should be replaced by underscores).
These work also when node-gyp is invoked directly:$ export npm_config_devdir=/tmp/.gyp> set npm_config_devdir=c:\temp\.gypnpm configuration, variables take the form OPTION_NAME.
This way only works when node-gyp is executed by npm:$ npm config set [--global] devdir /tmp/.gyp$ npm i buffertools(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2012 Nathan Rajlich <nathan@tootallnate.net>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
v3.8.0 2018-08-09
c5929cb4fe] - doc: update Xcode preferences tab name. (Ivan Daniluk) #13308b488da8b9] - doc: update link to commit guidelines (Jonas Hermsmeier) #1456b4fe8c16f9] - doc: fix visual studio links (Bartosz Sosnowski) #1490536759c7e9] - configure: use sys.version_info to get python version (Yang Guo) #150494c39c604e] - gyp: fix ninja build failure (GYP patch) (Daniel Bevenius) nodejs/node#12484e8ea74e0fa] - tools: patch gyp to avoid xcrun errors (Ujjwal Sharma) nodejs/node#21520ea9aff44f2] - tools: fix "the the" typos in comments (Masashi Hirano) nodejs/node#20716207e5aa4fd] - gyp: implement LD/LDXX for ninja and FIPS (Sam Roberts)b416c5f4b7] - gyp: enable cctest to use objects (gyp part) (Daniel Bevenius) nodejs/node#1245040692d016b] - gyp: add compile_commands.json gyp generator (Ben Noordhuis) nodejs/node#12450fc3c4e2b10] - gyp: float gyp patch for long filenames (Anna Henningsen) nodejs/node#79638aedbfdef6] - gyp: backport GYP fix to fix AIX shared suffix (Stewart Addison)6cd84b84fc] - test: formatting and minor fixes for execFileSync replacement (Rod Vagg) #152160e421363f] - test: added test/processExecSync.js for when execFileSync is not available. (Rohit Hazra) #1492969447c5bd] - deps: bump request to 2.8.7, fixes heok/hawk issues (Rohit Hazra) #1492340403ccfe] - win: improve parsing of SDK version (Alessandro Vergani) #1516FAQs
Node.js native addon build tool
The npm package node-gyp receives a total of 11,085,531 weekly downloads. As such, node-gyp popularity was classified as popular.
We found that node-gyp demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 3 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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