node-gyp

What is node-gyp?

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.

What are node-gyp's main functionalities?

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 rebuild

Configuration

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 configure

Compiling

This command compiles the native addon module using the generated build files. It should be run after 'node-gyp configure'.

node-gyp build

Cleaning

This command removes any build artifacts or temporary files created during the build process.

node-gyp clean

Other packages similar to node-gyp

node-pre-gyp

node-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

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

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

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.

README

node-gyp - Node.js native addon build tool

node-gyp is a cross-platform command-line tool written in Node.js for compiling native addon modules for Node.js. It contains a vendored copy of the gyp-next project that was previously used by the Chromium team, extended to support the development of Node.js native addons.

Note that node-gyp is not used to build Node.js itself.

Multiple target versions of Node.js are supported (i.e. 0.8, ..., 4, 5, 6, etc.), regardless of what version of Node.js is actually installed on your system (node-gyp downloads the necessary development files or headers for the target version).

Features

• The same build commands work on any of the supported platforms
• Supports the targeting of different versions of Node.js

Installation

You can install node-gyp using npm:

$ npm install -g node-gyp

Depending on your operating system, you will need to install:

On Unix

• Python v2.7, v3.5, v3.6, v3.7, or v3.8
• make
• A proper C/C++ compiler toolchain, like GCC

On macOS

ATTENTION: If your Mac has been upgraded to macOS Catalina (10.15), please read macOS_Catalina.md.

• Python v2.7, v3.5, v3.6, v3.7, or v3.8
• Xcode
  • You also need to install the XCode Command Line Tools by running xcode-select --install. Alternatively, if you already have the full Xcode installed, you can find them under the menu Xcode -> Open Developer Tool -> More Developer Tools.... This step will install clang, clang++, and make.

On Windows

Install the current version of Python from the Microsoft Store package.

Option 1

Install all the required tools and configurations using Microsoft's windows-build-tools using npm install --global windows-build-tools from an elevated PowerShell or CMD.exe (run as Administrator).

Option 2

Install tools and configuration manually:

• Install Visual C++ Build Environment: Visual Studio Build Tools (using "Visual C++ build tools" workload) or Visual Studio 2017 Community (using the "Desktop development with C++" workload)
• Launch cmd, npm config set msvs_version 2017

If the above steps didn't work for you, please visit Microsoft's Node.js Guidelines for Windows for additional tips.

To target native ARM64 Node.js on Windows 10 on ARM, add the components "Visual C++ compilers and libraries for ARM64" and "Visual C++ ATL for ARM64".

Configuring Python Dependency

node-gyp requires that you have installed a compatible version of Python, one of: v2.7, v3.5, v3.6, v3.7, or v3.8. If you have multiple Python versions installed, you can identify which Python version node-gyp should use in one of the following ways:

1. by setting the --python command-line option, e.g.:

$ node-gyp <command> --python /path/to/executable/python

1. 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/python

1. If the PYTHON environment variable is set to the path of a Python executable, then that version will be used, if it is a compatible version.

2. If the NODE_GYP_FORCE_PYTHON environment variable is set to the path of a Python executable, it will be used instead of any of the other configured or builtin Python search paths. If it's not a compatible version, no further searching will be done.

How to Use

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 a binding.gyp file in the current directory to process. See below for instructions on creating a 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.js 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 commands.

The binding.gyp file

A binding.gyp file describes the configuration to build your module, in a JSON-like format. This file gets placed in the root of your package, alongside package.json.

A barebones gyp file appropriate for building a Node.js addon could look like:

{
  "targets": [
    {
      "target_name": "binding",
      "sources": [ "src/binding.cc" ]
    }
  ]
}

Further reading

Some additional resources for Node.js native addons and writing gyp configuration files:

• "Going Native" a nodeschool.io tutorial
• "Hello World" node addon example
• gyp user documentation
• gyp input format reference
• "binding.gyp" files out in the wild wiki page

Commands

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.js header files for the given version
list	Lists the currently installed Node.js header versions
remove	Removes the Node.js header files for the given version

Command Options

node-gyp accepts the following command options:

Command	Description
-j n, --jobs n	Run make in parallel. The value max will use all available CPU cores
--target=v6.2.1	Node.js version to build for (default is 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 is 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 is OS cache directory)
--ensure	Don't reinstall headers if already present
--dist-url=$url	Download header tarball from custom URL
--proxy=$url	Set HTTP(S) proxy for downloading header tarball
--noproxy=$urls	Set urls to ignore proxies when downloading header tarball
--cafile=$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 binary
--msvs_version=$version	Set Visual Studio version (Windows only)
--solution=$solution	Set Visual Studio Solution version (Windows only)

Configuration

Environment variables

Use the form npm_config_OPTION_NAME for any of the command options listed above (dashes in option names should be replaced by underscores).

For example, to set devdir equal to /tmp/.gyp, you would:

Run this on Unix:

$ export npm_config_devdir=/tmp/.gyp

Or this on Windows:

> set npm_config_devdir=c:\temp\.gyp

npm configuration

Use the form OPTION_NAME for any of the command options listed above.

For example, to set devdir equal to /tmp/.gyp, you would run:

$ npm config set [--global] devdir /tmp/.gyp

Note: Configuration set via npm will only be used when node-gyp is run via npm, not when node-gyp is run directly.

License

node-gyp is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.

Changelog

v7.1.2 2020-10-17

• [096e3aded5] - gyp: update gyp to 0.6.2 (Myles Borins) #2241
• [54f97cd243] - doc: add cmd to reset xcode-select to initial state (Valera Rozuvan) #2235