gbaumgart.nexe v0.4.1

Nexe

Nexe is a command-line utility that compiles your Node.js application into a single executable file.

Motivation

• Ability to run multiple applications with different node.js runtimes.
• Distributable binaries without needing node / npm.
• Starts faster.
• Lockdown specific application versions, and easily rollback.
• Faster deployments.

Building Requirements

• Linux / Mac / BSD / Windows
• Python 2.6 or 2.7 (use --python if not in PATH)
• Windows: Visual Studio 2010+

Caveats

Doesn't support native modules

• Use the techniques below for working around dynamic require statements to exclude the module from the bundling, and deploy along side the executable in a node_module folder so your app can find it. Note: On windows you may need to have your app be named node.exe if .node file depends on node.

Doesn't support dynamic require statements

Such As:

var x = require(someVar);

In this case nexe won't bundle the file

	var x;
	if (someCheck) {
		x = require("./ver1.js");
	} else {
		x = require("./var2.js");
	}

In this case nexe will bundle both files.

Workarounds: 1) for dynamic requires that you want bundled add the following into your project

	var dummyToForceIncludeForBundle = false;
	if (dummyToForceIncludeForBundle) {
		require("./loadedDynamicallyLater.js");
		// ...
	}

this will trick the bundler into including them.

2) for dynamic files getting included that you don't want to be

	var moduleName = "./ver2.js";
	if (someCheck) {
		moduleName = "./ver1.js";
	}
	var x = require(moduleName);

Note: neither file will be bundled.

Using these two techniques you can change your application code so modules are not bundles, and generate a includes.js file as part of your build process so that the right files get bundled for your build configuration.

__dirname

Once the module is bundled it is part of the executable. __dirname is therefore the executable dir (process.execPath). Thus if you put resources on a relative path from the the executable your app will be able to access them.

If you had a data file at /dev/myNodeApp/stateManager/handler/data/some.csv and a file at /dev/myNodeApp/stateManager/handler/loader.js

	module.exports = fw.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, "./data/some.csv"));

You would need to deploy some.csv in a sub dir data/ along side your executable

There are potential use cases for __dirname where the executable path is not the correct substitution, and could result in a silent error (possibly even in a dependency that you are unaware of).

Note: __filename will be 'undefined'

child_process.fork

child_process.spawn works is unmodified, but child_process.fork will make an attempt to launch a new instance of your executable and run the bundled module.

Installation

Via NPM:

	npm install nexe [-g]

Or git:

	git clone https://github.com/crcn/nexe.git

CLI Usage

Usage: nexe -i [sources] -o [binary] [options]

Options:
	-i, --input    The entry javascript files         [default: cwd]
	-o, --output   The output binary                  [default: out.nex]
	-r, --runtime  The node.js runtime to use         [default: "latest"]
	-t, --temp     The path to store node.js sources  [default: ./tmp/nexe]
	-f, --flags    Don't parse node and v8 flags, pass through app flags  [default: false]
	-v, --version  Display version number
	-p, --python   Set path of python to use.         [default: "python"]
	-F, --framework Set the framework to use.          [default: "nodejs"]

Code Usage

var nexe = require('nexe');

nexe.compile({
	input: 'input.js',
	output: 'path/to/bin',
	nodeVersion: '0.12.5',
	nodeTempDir: 'src',
	python: 'path/to/python',
	resourceFiles: [ 'path/to/a/file' ],
	flags: true,
	framework: "nodejs"
}, function(err) {
	console.log(err);
});

package.json inclusion

As of 0.4.0 you can now embed nexe options into package.json. Note that this Format is still in works, so it is likely to change.

"nexe": {
	"input": "./bin/nexe",
	"output": "nexe^$",
	"temp": "src",
	"runtime": {
		"framework": "iojs",
		"version": "2.3.1",
		"ignoreFlags": true
	}
}

Notes:

• output: can use ^$ for platform specific file extension

Maintainers

• Jared Allard (@jaredallard) <jaredallard@outlook.com> (Active)
• Christopher Karper (@ckarper) <Christopher.Karper@gmail.com> (Active)
• Craig Jefferds (@crcn) <craig.j.condon@gmail.com> (Not Active)