node-ninja

Goals

This is a fork of node-gyp, with the long term goal of removing the dependency on GYP and targeting the Ninja build system instead.

The current version is different from node-gyp in these significant ways:

• It has better support for native stacks with multiple gyp files.

• It supports incremental builds when pre-building against multiple Node.js ABI versions, when using a package like prebuild.

• It is licensed under Mozilla Public License version 2.0.

• It uses the C4 contribution process, meaning your patches will be accepted rapidly, if they conform to some basic rules.

How to Contribute

• Be a node-ninja user.
• Read CONTRIBUTING.md for details.
• Fork https://github.com/codejockey/node-ninja to your own account.
• Solve small problems with minimal, neat solutions.
• Send us your pull requests, and we will merge them.

Node.js native addon build tool

node-ninja 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.

Multiple target versions of node are supported (i.e. 0.8, 0.9, 0.10, ..., 1.0, etc.), regardless of what version of node is actually installed on your system (node-ninja downloads the necessary development files for the target version).

Features:

• Easy to use, consistent interface
• Same commands to build your module on every platform
• Supports multiple target versions of Node

Installation

You can install with npm:

$ npm install -g node-ninja

TODO: review this section, it is out of date.

You will also need to install:

• On Unix:
  • python (v2.7 recommended, v3.x.x is not supported)
  • make
  • A proper C/C++ compiler toolchain, like GCC
• On Mac OS X:
  • python (v2.7 recommended, v3.x.x is not supported) (already installed on Mac OS X)
  • Xcode
    • You also need to install the Command Line Tools via Xcode. You can find this under the menu Xcode -> Preferences -> Downloads
    • This step will install gcc and the related toolchain containing make
• On Windows:
  • Python (v2.7.10 recommended, v3.x.x is not supported)
    • Make sure that you have a PYTHON environment variable, and it is set to drive:\path\to\python.exe not to a folder
  • Windows XP/Vista/7:
    • Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2013 (Express version works well)
      • If the install fails, try uninstalling any C++ 2010 x64&x86 Redistributable that you have installed first
      • If you get errors that the 64-bit compilers are not installed you may also need the compiler update for the Windows SDK 7.1
  • Windows 7/8/10:
    • Install the latest version of npm (3.3.6 at the time of writing)
    • Install Python 2.7 from https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7/ and make sure its on the System Path
    • Install Visual Studio Community 2015 Edition. (Custom Install, Select Visual C++ during the installation)
    • Set the environment variable GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2015
    • Run the command prompt as Administrator
    • $ npm install (--msvs_version=2015) <-- Shouldn't be needed if you have set GYP_MSVS_VERSION env
  • All Windows Versions
    • For 64-bit builds of node and native modules you will also need the Windows 7 64-bit SDK
    • You may need to run one of the following commands if your build complains about WindowsSDKDir not being set, and you are sure you have already installed the SDK:

call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\bin\Setenv.cmd" /Release /x86
call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\bin\Setenv.cmd" /Release /x64

If you have multiple Python versions installed, you can identify which Python version node-ninja uses by setting the '--python' variable:

node-ninja --python /path/to/python2.7

If node-ninja 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

Note that OS X is just a flavour of Unix and so needs python, make, and C/C++. An easy way to obtain these is to install XCode from Apple, and then use it to install the command line tools (under Preferences -> Downloads).

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-ninja configure

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-ninja 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.

The "binding.gyp" file

The 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 the package.json file.

A barebones gyp file appropriate for building a node addon looks like:

# A minimal gyp file
{
  "targets": [
    {
      "target_name": "binding",
      "sources": [ "src/binding.cc" ],
    },
  ],
}

Note that the file format allows trailing commas, and # comments.

Commands

node-ninja accepts the following commands:

Command	Description
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 development header files for the given version
list	Lists the currently installed node development file versions
remove	Removes the node development header files for the given version

node-gyp accepts the following command options:

Option	Description
-j n, --jobs n	For build: run parallel builds
--silly, --loglevel=silly	Log all progress to console
--verbose, --loglevel=verbose	Log most progress to console
--silent, --loglevel=silent	Don't log anything
--debug	Make Debug build (default=Release)
--release, --no-debug	Make Release build
--builddir x	Build in this directory (default=build)

License

Node-ninja is licensed under the Mozilla Public License version 2.0. See LICENSE.

Part of this code coming from node-gyp are licensed under the MIT license as follows:

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.