node-pre-gyp

Node.js native add-on binary install tool.

• Stands in front of node-gyp
• Installs your module from a pre-compiled binary (which you are responsible for hosting)
• If successfull avoids needing node-gyp to be invoked.
• Falls back to calling node-gyp rebuild if binaries are not available

EXPERIMENTAL - not ready for widespread use.

Design

You add a binary property to your package.json which lists:

• module_name: The name of your native node module.
• module_path: The location your native module is placed after a build (commonly build/Release/)
• remote_uri: A url to the remote location where tarball binaries are available
• template: A versioning string which describes the tarball versioning scheme for your binaries

And example from node-osmium looks like:

    "binary": {
        "module_name": "osmium",
        "module_path": "./lib",
        "remote_uri": "http://node-osmium.s3.amazonaws.com",
        "template": "{module_name}-v{major}.{minor}.{patch}-{node_abi}-{platform}-{arch}.tar.gz"
    },

Then to package a binary you do:

mkdir stage
node-pre-gyp publish

Then post the resulting tarball (in the stage/ directory) to your remote location.

Finally you add a custom install script:

    "scripts": {
        "install": "node-pre-gyp rebuild",
    }

Then users installing your module will get your binary, if available, instead of a source compile.

Modules using node-pre-gyp:

• node-osmium
• node-sqlite3