node-gyp

C++ code needs to be compiled into executable form whether it be as an object file to linked with others, a shared library, or a standalone executable.

The main reason for this is that we need to link to the Node.js dependencies and headers correctly, another reason is that we need a cross platform way to build C++ source into binary for the target platform.

Until now node-gyp is the de-facto standard build tool for writing Node.js addons. It's based on Google's gyp build tool, which abstract away many of the tedious issues related to cross platform building.

node-gyp uses a file called binding.gyp that is located on the root of your addon project.

JSON like syntax. The most important parameter is the  **target** that must be
set to the same value used on the initialization code of the addon as in the
examples reported below:

### **binding.gyp**

```gyp
{
  "targets": [
    {
      # myModule is the name of your native addon
      "target_name": "myModule",
      "sources": ["src/my_module.cc", ...],
      ...
  ]
}

my_module.cc

#include <napi.h>

// ...

/**
* This code is our entry-point. We receive two arguments here, the first is the
* environment that represent an independent instance of the JavaScript runtime,
* the second is exports, the same as module.exports in a .js file.
* You can either add properties to the exports object passed in or create your
* own exports object. In either case you must return the object to be used as
* the exports for the module when you return from the Init function.
*/
Napi::Object Init(Napi::Env env, Napi::Object exports) {

  // ...

  return exports;
}

/**
* This code defines the entry-point for the Node addon, it tells Node where to go
* once the library has been loaded into active memory. The first argument must
* match the "target" in our *binding.gyp*. Using NODE_GYP_MODULE_NAME ensures
* that the argument will be correct, as long as the module is built with
* node-gyp (which is the usual way of building modules). The second argument
* points to the function to invoke. The function must not be namespaced.
*/
NODE_API_MODULE(NODE_GYP_MODULE_NAME, Init)

node-gyp reference

Sometimes finding the right settings for binding.gyp is not easy so to accomplish at most complicated task please refer to:

node-gyp.md 2.9 KB History Raw

node-gyp

my_module.cc

node-gyp reference

node-gyp.md 2.9 KB

History Raw