1# Building Node.js 2 3Depending on what platform or features you need, the build process may 4differ. After you've built a binary, running the 5test suite to confirm that the binary works as intended is a good next step. 6 7If you can reproduce a test failure, search for it in the 8[Node.js issue tracker](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues) or 9file a new issue. 10 11## Table of contents 12 13* [Supported platforms](#supported-platforms) 14 * [Input](#input) 15 * [Strategy](#strategy) 16 * [Platform list](#platform-list) 17 * [Supported toolchains](#supported-toolchains) 18 * [Official binary platforms and toolchains](#official-binary-platforms-and-toolchains) 19 * [OpenSSL asm support](#openssl-asm-support) 20 * [Previous versions of this document](#previous-versions-of-this-document) 21* [Building Node.js on supported platforms](#building-nodejs-on-supported-platforms) 22 * [Note about Python 2 and Python 3](#note-about-python-2-and-python-3) 23 * [Unix and macOS](#unix-and-macos) 24 * [Unix prerequisites](#unix-prerequisites) 25 * [macOS prerequisites](#macos-prerequisites) 26 * [Building Node.js](#building-nodejs-1) 27 * [Installing Node.js](#installing-nodejs) 28 * [Running Tests](#running-tests) 29 * [Running Coverage](#running-coverage) 30 * [Building the documentation](#building-the-documentation) 31 * [Building a debug build](#building-a-debug-build) 32 * [Building an ASAN build](#building-an-asan-build) 33 * [Speeding up frequent rebuilds when developing](#speeding-up-frequent-rebuilds-when-developing) 34 * [Troubleshooting Unix and macOS builds](#troubleshooting-unix-and-macos-builds) 35 * [Windows](#windows) 36 * [Prerequisites](#prerequisites) 37 * [Option 1: Manual install](#option-1-manual-install) 38 * [Option 2: Automated install with Boxstarter](#option-2-automated-install-with-boxstarter) 39 * [Building Node.js](#building-nodejs-2) 40 * [Android/Android-based devices (e.g. Firefox OS)](#androidandroid-based-devices-eg-firefox-os) 41* [`Intl` (ECMA-402) support](#intl-ecma-402-support) 42 * [Build with full ICU support (all locales supported by ICU)](#build-with-full-icu-support-all-locales-supported-by-icu) 43 * [Unix/macOS](#unixmacos) 44 * [Windows](#windows-1) 45 * [Trimmed: `small-icu` (English only) support](#trimmed-small-icu-english-only-support) 46 * [Unix/macOS](#unixmacos-1) 47 * [Windows](#windows-2) 48 * [Building without Intl support](#building-without-intl-support) 49 * [Unix/macOS](#unixmacos-2) 50 * [Windows](#windows-3) 51 * [Use existing installed ICU (Unix/macOS only)](#use-existing-installed-icu-unixmacos-only) 52 * [Build with a specific ICU](#build-with-a-specific-icu) 53 * [Unix/macOS](#unixmacos-3) 54 * [Windows](#windows-4) 55* [Configuring OpenSSL config appname](#configure-openssl-appname) 56* [Building Node.js with FIPS-compliant OpenSSL](#building-nodejs-with-fips-compliant-openssl) 57* [Building Node.js with external core modules](#building-nodejs-with-external-core-modules) 58 * [Unix/macOS](#unixmacos-4) 59 * [Windows](#windows-5) 60* [Note for downstream distributors of Node.js](#note-for-downstream-distributors-of-nodejs) 61 62## Supported platforms 63 64This list of supported platforms is current as of the branch/release to 65which it belongs. 66 67### Input 68 69Node.js relies on V8 and libuv. We adopt a subset of their supported platforms. 70 71### Strategy 72 73There are three support tiers: 74 75* **Tier 1**: These platforms represent the majority of Node.js users. The 76 Node.js Build Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test coverage. 77 Test failures on tier 1 platforms will block releases. 78* **Tier 2**: These platforms represent smaller segments of the Node.js user 79 base. The Node.js Build Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test 80 coverage. Test failures on tier 2 platforms will block releases. 81 Infrastructure issues may delay the release of binaries for these platforms. 82* **Experimental**: May not compile or test suite may not pass. The core team 83 does not create releases for these platforms. Test failures on experimental 84 platforms do not block releases. Contributions to improve support for these 85 platforms are welcome. 86 87Platforms may move between tiers between major release lines. The table below 88will reflect those changes. 89 90### Platform list 91 92Node.js compilation/execution support depends on operating system, architecture, 93and libc version. The table below lists the support tier for each supported 94combination. A list of [supported compile toolchains](#supported-toolchains) is 95also supplied for tier 1 platforms. 96 97**For production applications, run Node.js on supported platforms only.** 98 99Node.js does not support a platform version if a vendor has expired support 100for it. In other words, Node.js does not support running on End-of-Life (EoL) 101platforms. This is true regardless of entries in the table below. 102 103| Operating System | Architectures | Versions | Support Type | Notes | 104| ---------------- | ---------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------ | --------------------------------- | 105| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 3.10, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 16.04 <sup>[1](#fn1)</sup>, Debian 9, EL 7 <sup>[2](#fn2)</sup> | 106| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 3.10, musl >= 1.1.19 | Experimental | e.g. Alpine 3.8 | 107| GNU/Linux | x86 | kernel >= 3.10, glibc >= 2.17 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 10 | 108| GNU/Linux | arm64 | kernel >= 4.5, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 16.04, Debian 9, EL 7 <sup>[3](#fn3)</sup> | 109| GNU/Linux | armv7 | kernel >= 4.14, glibc >= 2.24 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 9 | 110| GNU/Linux | armv6 | kernel >= 4.14, glibc >= 2.24 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 12 | 111| GNU/Linux | ppc64le >=power8 | kernel >= 3.10.0, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 2 | e.g. Ubuntu 16.04 <sup>[1](#fn1)</sup>, EL 7 <sup>[2](#fn2)</sup> | 112| GNU/Linux | s390x | kernel >= 3.10.0, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 2 | e.g. EL 7 <sup>[2](#fn2)</sup> | 113| Windows | x64, x86 (WoW64) | >= Windows 8.1/2012 R2 | Tier 1 | <sup>[4](#fn4),[5](#fn5)</sup> | 114| Windows | x86 (native) | >= Windows 8.1/2012 R2 | Tier 1 (running) / Experimental (compiling) <sup>[6](#fn6)</sup> | | 115| Windows | x64, x86 | Windows Server 2012 (not R2) | Experimental | | 116| Windows | arm64 | >= Windows 10 | Tier 2 (compiling) / Experimental (running) | | 117| macOS | x64 | >= 10.11 | Tier 1 | | 118| macOS | arm64 | >= 11 | Experimental | | 119| SmartOS | x64 | >= 18 | Tier 2 | | 120| AIX | ppc64be >=power7 | >= 7.2 TL02 | Tier 2 | | 121| FreeBSD | x64 | >= 11 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 12 <sup>[7](#fn7)</sup> | 122 123<em id="fn1">1</em>: GCC 6 is not provided on the base platform. Users will 124 need the 125 [Toolchain test builds PPA](https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-toolchain-r/+archive/ubuntu/test?field.series_filter=xenial) 126 or similar to source a newer compiler. 127 128<em id="fn2">2</em>: GCC 6 is not provided on the base platform. Users will 129 need the 130 [devtoolset-6](https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/devtoolset-6/) 131 or later to source a newer compiler. 132 133<em id="fn3">3</em>: Older kernel versions may work for ARM64. However the 134 Node.js test infrastructure only tests >= 4.5. 135 136<em id="fn4">4</em>: On Windows, running Node.js in Windows terminal emulators 137 like `mintty` requires the usage of [winpty](https://github.com/rprichard/winpty) 138 for the tty channels to work (e.g. `winpty node.exe script.js`). 139 In "Git bash" if you call the node shell alias (`node` without the `.exe` 140 extension), `winpty` is used automatically. 141 142<em id="fn5">5</em>: The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is not 143 supported, but the GNU/Linux build process and binaries should work. The 144 community will only address issues that reproduce on native GNU/Linux 145 systems. Issues that only reproduce on WSL should be reported in the 146 [WSL issue tracker](https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues). Running the 147 Windows binary (`node.exe`) in WSL is not recommended. It will not work 148 without workarounds such as stdio redirection. 149 150<em id="fn6">6</em>: Running Node.js on x86 Windows should work and binaries 151are provided. However, tests in our infrastructure only run on WoW64. 152Furthermore, compiling on x86 Windows is Experimental and 153may not be possible. 154 155<em id="fn7">7</em>: The default FreeBSD 12.0 compiler is Clang 6.0.1, but 156FreeBSD 12.1 upgrades to 8.0.1. Other Clang/LLVM versions are available 157via the system's package manager, including Clang 9.0. 158 159### Supported toolchains 160 161Depending on the host platform, the selection of toolchains may vary. 162 163| Operating System | Compiler Versions | 164| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | 165| Linux | GCC >= 6.3 | 166| Windows | Visual Studio >= 2017 with the Windows 10 SDK on a 64-bit host | 167| macOS | Xcode >= 10 (Apple LLVM >= 10) | 168 169### Official binary platforms and toolchains 170 171Binaries at <https://nodejs.org/download/release/> are produced on: 172 173| Binary package | Platform and Toolchain | 174| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 175| aix-ppc64 | AIX 7.1 TL05 on PPC64BE with GCC 6 | 176| darwin-x64 (and .pkg) | macOS 10.15, Xcode Command Line Tools 11 with -mmacosx-version-min=10.13 | 177| linux-arm64 | CentOS 7 with devtoolset-8 / GCC 8 <sup>[8](#fn8)</sup> | 178| linux-armv7l | Cross-compiled on Ubuntu 18.04 x64 with [custom GCC toolchain](https://github.com/rvagg/rpi-newer-crosstools) | 179| linux-ppc64le | CentOS 7 with devtoolset-8 / GCC 8 <sup>[8](#fn8)</sup> | 180| linux-s390x | RHEL 7 with devtoolset-8 / GCC 8 <sup>[8](#fn8)</sup> | 181| linux-x64 | CentOS 7 with devtoolset-8 / GCC 8 <sup>[8](#fn8)</sup> | 182| win-x64 and win-x86 | Windows 2012 R2 (x64) with Visual Studio 2019 | 183 184<em id="fn8">8</em>: The Enterprise Linux devtoolset-8 allows us to compile 185binaries with GCC 8 but linked to the glibc and libstdc++ versions of the host 186platforms (CentOS 7 / RHEL 7). Therefore, binaries produced on these systems 187are compatible with glibc >= 2.17 and libstdc++ >= 6.0.20 (`GLIBCXX_3.4.20`). 188These are available on distributions natively supporting GCC 4.9, such as 189Ubuntu 14.04 and Debian 8. 190 191#### OpenSSL asm support 192 193OpenSSL-1.1.1 requires the following assembler version for use of asm 194support on x86_64 and ia32. 195 196For use of AVX-512, 197 198* gas (GNU assembler) version 2.26 or higher 199* nasm version 2.11.8 or higher in Windows 200 201AVX-512 is disabled for Skylake-X by OpenSSL-1.1.1. 202 203For use of AVX2, 204 205* gas (GNU assembler) version 2.23 or higher 206* Xcode version 5.0 or higher 207* llvm version 3.3 or higher 208* nasm version 2.10 or higher in Windows 209 210Please refer to 211 <https://www.openssl.org/docs/man1.1.1/man3/OPENSSL_ia32cap.html> for details. 212 213 If compiling without one of the above, use `configure` with the 214`--openssl-no-asm` flag. Otherwise, `configure` will fail. 215 216### Previous versions of this document 217 218Supported platforms and toolchains change with each major version of Node.js. 219This document is only valid for the current major version of Node.js. 220Consult previous versions of this document for older versions of Node.js: 221 222* [Node.js 14](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/v14.x/BUILDING.md) 223* [Node.js 12](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/v12.x/BUILDING.md) 224* [Node.js 10](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/v10.x/BUILDING.md) 225 226## Building Node.js on supported platforms 227 228### Note about Python 2 and Python 3 229 230The Node.js project supports both Python 3 and Python 2 for building. 231If both are installed Python 3 will be used. If only Python 2 is available 232it will be used instead. When possible we recommend that you build and 233test with Python 3. 234 235### Unix and macOS 236 237#### Unix prerequisites 238 239* `gcc` and `g++` >= 6.3 or newer, or 240* GNU Make 3.81 or newer 241* Python (see note above) 242 * Python 2.7 243 * Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 or 3.10 (see note above) 244 245Installation via Linux package manager can be achieved with: 246 247* Ubuntu, Debian: `sudo apt-get install python g++ make` 248* Fedora: `sudo dnf install python gcc-c++ make` 249* CentOS and RHEL: `sudo yum install python gcc-c++ make` 250* OpenSUSE: `sudo zypper install python gcc-c++ make` 251* Arch Linux, Manjaro: `sudo pacman -S python gcc make` 252 253FreeBSD and OpenBSD users may also need to install `libexecinfo`. 254 255#### macOS prerequisites 256 257* Xcode Command Line Tools >= 10 for macOS 258* Python (see note above) 259 * Python 2.7 260 * Python 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, or 3.10 (see note above) 261 262macOS users can install the `Xcode Command Line Tools` by running 263`xcode-select --install`. Alternatively, if you already have the full Xcode 264installed, you can find them under the menu `Xcode -> Open Developer Tool -> 265More Developer Tools...`. This step will install `clang`, `clang++`, and 266`make`. 267 268#### Building Node.js 269 270If the path to your build directory contains a space, the build will likely 271fail. 272 273To build Node.js: 274 275```console 276$ ./configure 277$ make -j4 278``` 279 280The `-j4` option will cause `make` to run 4 simultaneous compilation jobs which 281may reduce build time. For more information, see the 282[GNU Make Documentation](https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Parallel.html). 283 284The above requires that `python` resolves to a supported version of 285Python. See [Prerequisites](#prerequisites). 286 287After building, setting up [firewall rules](tools/macos-firewall.sh) can avoid 288popups asking to accept incoming network connections when running tests. 289 290Running the following script on macOS will add the firewall rules for the 291executable `node` in the `out` directory and the symbolic `node` link in the 292project's root directory. 293 294```console 295$ sudo ./tools/macos-firewall.sh 296``` 297 298#### Installing Node.js 299 300To install this version of Node.js into a system directory: 301 302```bash 303[sudo] make install 304``` 305 306#### Running tests 307 308To verify the build: 309 310```console 311$ make test-only 312``` 313 314At this point, you are ready to make code changes and re-run the tests. 315 316If you are running tests before submitting a pull request, the recommended 317command is: 318 319```console 320$ make -j4 test 321``` 322 323`make -j4 test` does a full check on the codebase, including running linters and 324documentation tests. 325 326Make sure the linter does not report any issues and that all tests pass. Please 327do not submit patches that fail either check. 328 329If you want to run the linter without running tests, use 330`make lint`/`vcbuild lint`. It will lint JavaScript, C++, and Markdown files. 331 332If you are updating tests and want to run tests in a single test file 333(e.g. `test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js`): 334 335```text 336$ python tools/test.py test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js 337``` 338 339You can execute the entire suite of tests for a given subsystem 340by providing the name of a subsystem: 341 342```text 343$ python tools/test.py -J --mode=release child-process 344``` 345 346If you want to check the other options, please refer to the help by using 347the `--help` option: 348 349```text 350$ python tools/test.py --help 351``` 352 353You can usually run tests directly with node: 354 355```text 356$ ./node ./test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js 357``` 358 359Remember to recompile with `make -j4` in between test runs if you change code in 360the `lib` or `src` directories. 361 362The tests attempt to detect support for IPv6 and exclude IPv6 tests if 363appropriate. If your main interface has IPv6 addresses, then your 364loopback interface must also have '::1' enabled. For some default installations 365on Ubuntu that does not seem to be the case. To enable '::1' on the 366loopback interface on Ubuntu: 367 368```bash 369sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6=0 370``` 371 372You can use 373[node-code-ide-configs](https://github.com/nodejs/node-code-ide-configs) 374to run/debug tests, if your IDE configs are present. 375 376#### Running coverage 377 378It's good practice to ensure any code you add or change is covered by tests. 379You can do so by running the test suite with coverage enabled: 380 381```console 382$ ./configure --coverage 383$ make coverage 384``` 385 386A detailed coverage report will be written to `coverage/index.html` for 387JavaScript coverage and to `coverage/cxxcoverage.html` for C++ coverage. 388 389If you only want to run the JavaScript tests then you do not need to run 390the first command (`./configure --coverage`). Run `make coverage-run-js`, 391to execute JavaScript tests independently of the C++ test suite: 392 393```text 394$ make coverage-run-js 395``` 396 397If you are updating tests and want to collect coverage for a single test file 398(e.g. `test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js`): 399 400```text 401$ make coverage-clean 402$ NODE_V8_COVERAGE=coverage/tmp python tools/test.py test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js 403$ make coverage-report-js 404``` 405 406You can collect coverage for the entire suite of tests for a given subsystem 407by providing the name of a subsystem: 408 409```text 410$ make coverage-clean 411$ NODE_V8_COVERAGE=coverage/tmp python tools/test.py -J --mode=release child-process 412$ make coverage-report-js 413``` 414 415The `make coverage` command downloads some tools to the project root directory. 416To clean up after generating the coverage reports: 417 418```console 419$ make coverage-clean 420``` 421 422#### Building the documentation 423 424To build the documentation: 425 426This will build Node.js first (if necessary) and then use it to build the docs: 427 428```bash 429make doc 430``` 431 432If you have an existing Node.js build, you can build just the docs with: 433 434```bash 435NODE=/path/to/node make doc-only 436``` 437 438To read the man page: 439 440```bash 441man doc/node.1 442``` 443 444If you prefer to read the full documentation in a browser, run the following. 445 446```bash 447make docserve 448``` 449 450This will spin up a static file server and provide a URL to where you may browse 451the documentation locally. 452 453If you're comfortable viewing the documentation using the program your operating 454system has associated with the default web browser, run the following. 455 456```bash 457make docopen 458``` 459 460This will open a file URL to a one-page version of all the browsable HTML 461documents using the default browser. 462 463To test if Node.js was built correctly: 464 465```bash 466./node -e "console.log('Hello from Node.js ' + process.version)" 467``` 468 469#### Building a debug build 470 471If you run into an issue where the information provided by the JS stack trace 472is not enough, or if you suspect the error happens outside of the JS VM, you 473can try to build a debug enabled binary: 474 475```console 476$ ./configure --debug 477$ make -j4 478``` 479 480`make` with `./configure --debug` generates two binaries, the regular release 481one in `out/Release/node` and a debug binary in `out/Debug/node`, only the 482release version is actually installed when you run `make install`. 483 484To use the debug build with all the normal dependencies overwrite the release 485version in the install directory: 486 487``` console 488$ make install PREFIX=/opt/node-debug/ 489$ cp -a -f out/Debug/node /opt/node-debug/node 490``` 491 492When using the debug binary, core dumps will be generated in case of crashes. 493These core dumps are useful for debugging when provided with the 494corresponding original debug binary and system information. 495 496Reading the core dump requires `gdb` built on the same platform the core dump 497was captured on (i.e. 64-bit `gdb` for `node` built on a 64-bit system, Linux 498`gdb` for `node` built on Linux) otherwise you will get errors like 499`not in executable format: File format not recognized`. 500 501Example of generating a backtrace from the core dump: 502 503``` console 504$ gdb /opt/node-debug/node core.node.8.1535359906 505$ backtrace 506``` 507 508#### Building an ASAN build 509 510[ASAN](https://github.com/google/sanitizers) can help detect various memory 511related bugs. ASAN builds are currently only supported on linux. 512If you want to check it on Windows or macOS or you want a consistent toolchain 513on Linux, you can try [Docker](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop) 514 (using an image like `gengjiawen/node-build:2020-02-14`). 515 516The `--debug` is not necessary and will slow down build and testing, but it can 517show clear stacktrace if ASAN hits an issue. 518 519``` console 520$ ./configure --debug --enable-asan && make -j4 521$ make test-only 522``` 523 524#### Speeding up frequent rebuilds when developing 525 526If you plan to frequently rebuild Node.js, especially if using several branches, 527installing `ccache` can help to greatly reduce build times. Set up with: 528```console 529$ sudo apt install ccache # for Debian/Ubuntu, included in most Linux distros 530$ ccache -o cache_dir=<tmp_dir> 531$ ccache -o max_size=5.0G 532$ export CC="ccache gcc" # add to your .profile 533$ export CXX="ccache g++" # add to your .profile 534``` 535This will allow for near-instantaneous rebuilds even when switching branches. 536 537When modifying only the JS layer in `lib`, it is possible to externally load it 538without modifying the executable: 539```console 540$ ./configure --node-builtin-modules-path $(pwd) 541``` 542The resulting binary won't include any JS files and will try to load them from 543the specified directory. The JS debugger of Visual Studio Code supports this 544configuration since the November 2020 version and allows for setting 545breakpoints. 546 547#### Troubleshooting Unix and macOS builds 548 549Stale builds can sometimes result in `file not found` errors while building. 550This and some other problems can be resolved with `make distclean`. The 551`distclean` recipe aggressively removes build artifacts. You will need to 552build again (`make -j4`). Since all build artifacts have been removed, this 553rebuild may take a lot more time than previous builds. Additionally, 554`distclean` removes the file that stores the results of `./configure`. If you 555ran `./configure` with non-default options (such as `--debug`), you will need 556to run it again before invoking `make -j4`. 557 558### Windows 559 560#### Prerequisites 561 562##### Option 1: Manual install 563 564* [Python 3.8](https://www.python.org/downloads/) 565* The "Desktop development with C++" workload from 566 [Visual Studio 2017 or 2019](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/) or 567 the "Visual C++ build tools" workload from the 568 [Build Tools](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#build-tools-for-visual-studio-2019), 569 with the default optional components 570* Basic Unix tools required for some tests, 571 [Git for Windows](https://git-scm.com/download/win) includes Git Bash 572 and tools which can be included in the global `PATH`. 573* The [NetWide Assembler](https://www.nasm.us/), for OpenSSL assembler modules. 574 If not installed in the default location, it needs to be manually added 575 to `PATH`. A build with the `openssl-no-asm` option does not need this, nor 576 does a build targeting ARM64 Windows. 577 578Optional requirements to build the MSI installer package: 579 580* The [WiX Toolset v3.11](https://wixtoolset.org/releases/) and the 581 [Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=RobMensching.WixToolsetVisualStudio2017Extension) 582 or the [Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2019 Extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=WixToolset.WixToolsetVisualStudio2019Extension). 583* The [WiX Toolset v3.14](https://wixtoolset.org/releases/) if 584 building for Windows 10 on ARM (ARM64) 585 586Optional requirements for compiling for Windows 10 on ARM (ARM64): 587 588* Visual Studio 15.9.0 or newer 589* Visual Studio optional components 590 * Visual C++ compilers and libraries for ARM64 591 * Visual C++ ATL for ARM64 592* Windows 10 SDK 10.0.17763.0 or newer 593 594##### Option 2: Automated install with Boxstarter 595 596A [Boxstarter](https://boxstarter.org/) script can be used for easy setup of 597Windows systems with all the required prerequisites for Node.js development. 598This script will install the following [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/) 599packages: 600 601* [Git for Windows](https://chocolatey.org/packages/git) with the `git` and 602 Unix tools added to the `PATH` 603* [Python 3.x](https://chocolatey.org/packages/python) and 604 [legacy Python](https://chocolatey.org/packages/python2) 605* [Visual Studio 2019 Build Tools](https://chocolatey.org/packages/visualstudio2019buildtools) 606 with [Visual C++ workload](https://chocolatey.org/packages/visualstudio2017-workload-vctools) 607* [NetWide Assembler](https://chocolatey.org/packages/nasm) 608 609To install Node.js prerequisites using 610[Boxstarter WebLauncher](https://boxstarter.org/WebLauncher), open 611<https://boxstarter.org/package/nr/url?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nodejs/node/HEAD/tools/bootstrap/windows_boxstarter> 612with Internet Explorer or Edge browser on the target machine. 613 614Alternatively, you can use PowerShell. Run those commands from an elevated 615PowerShell terminal: 616 617```powershell 618Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force 619iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://boxstarter.org/bootstrapper.ps1')) 620get-boxstarter -Force 621Install-BoxstarterPackage https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nodejs/node/HEAD/tools/bootstrap/windows_boxstarter -DisableReboots 622``` 623 624The entire installation using Boxstarter will take up approximately 10 GB of 625disk space. 626 627#### Building Node.js 628 629If the path to your build directory contains a space or a non-ASCII character, 630the build will likely fail. 631 632```console 633> .\vcbuild 634``` 635 636To run the tests: 637 638```console 639> .\vcbuild test 640``` 641 642To test if Node.js was built correctly: 643 644```console 645> Release\node -e "console.log('Hello from Node.js', process.version)" 646``` 647 648### Android/Android-based devices (e.g. Firefox OS) 649 650Android is not a supported platform. Patches to improve the Android build are 651welcome. There is no testing on Android in the current continuous integration 652environment. The participation of people dedicated and determined to improve 653Android building, testing, and support is encouraged. 654 655Be sure you have downloaded and extracted 656[Android NDK](https://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/ndk/index.html) before in 657a folder. Then run: 658 659```console 660$ ./android-configure /path/to/your/android-ndk 661$ make 662``` 663 664## `Intl` (ECMA-402) support 665 666[Intl](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/HEAD/doc/api/intl.md) support is 667enabled by default. 668 669### Build with full ICU support (all locales supported by ICU) 670 671This is the default option. 672 673#### Unix/macOS 674 675```console 676$ ./configure --with-intl=full-icu 677``` 678 679#### Windows 680 681```console 682> .\vcbuild full-icu 683``` 684 685### Trimmed: `small-icu` (English only) support 686 687 In this configuration, only English data is included, but 688the full `Intl` (ECMA-402) APIs. It does not need to download 689any dependencies to function. You can add full data at runtime. 690 691#### Unix/macOS 692 693```console 694$ ./configure --with-intl=small-icu 695``` 696 697#### Windows 698 699```console 700> .\vcbuild small-icu 701``` 702 703### Building without Intl support 704 705The `Intl` object will not be available, nor some other APIs such as 706`String.normalize`. 707 708#### Unix/macOS 709 710```console 711$ ./configure --without-intl 712``` 713 714#### Windows 715 716```console 717> .\vcbuild without-intl 718``` 719 720### Use existing installed ICU (Unix/macOS only) 721 722```console 723$ pkg-config --modversion icu-i18n && ./configure --with-intl=system-icu 724``` 725 726If you are cross-compiling, your `pkg-config` must be able to supply a path 727that works for both your host and target environments. 728 729### Build with a specific ICU 730 731You can find other ICU releases at 732[the ICU homepage](http://site.icu-project.org/download). 733Download the file named something like `icu4c-**##.#**-src.tgz` (or 734`.zip`). 735 736To check the minimum recommended ICU, run `./configure --help` and see 737the help for the `--with-icu-source` option. A warning will be printed 738during configuration if the ICU version is too old. 739 740#### Unix/macOS 741 742From an already-unpacked ICU: 743 744```console 745$ ./configure --with-intl=[small-icu,full-icu] --with-icu-source=/path/to/icu 746``` 747 748From a local ICU tarball: 749 750```console 751$ ./configure --with-intl=[small-icu,full-icu] --with-icu-source=/path/to/icu.tgz 752``` 753 754From a tarball URL: 755 756```console 757$ ./configure --with-intl=full-icu --with-icu-source=http://url/to/icu.tgz 758``` 759 760#### Windows 761 762First unpack latest ICU to `deps/icu` 763[icu4c-**##.#**-src.tgz](http://site.icu-project.org/download) (or `.zip`) 764as `deps/icu` (You'll have: `deps/icu/source/...`) 765 766```console 767> .\vcbuild full-icu 768``` 769 770### Configure OpenSSL appname 771 772Node.js can use an OpenSSL configuration file by specifying the environment 773variable `OPENSSL_CONF`, or using the command line option `--openssl-conf`, and 774if none of those are specified will default to reading the default OpenSSL 775configuration file `openssl.cnf`. Node.js will only read a section that is by 776default named `nodejs_conf`, but this name can be overridden using the following 777configure option: 778 779```console 780$ ./configure --openssl-conf-name=<some_conf_name> 781``` 782 783## Building Node.js with FIPS-compliant OpenSSL 784 785The current version of Node.js does not support FIPS. 786 787## Building Node.js with external core modules 788 789It is possible to specify one or more JavaScript text files to be bundled in 790the binary as built-in modules when building Node.js. 791 792### Unix/macOS 793 794This command will make `/root/myModule.js` available via 795`require('/root/myModule')` and `./myModule2.js` available via 796`require('myModule2')`. 797 798```console 799$ ./configure --link-module '/root/myModule.js' --link-module './myModule2.js' 800``` 801 802### Windows 803 804To make `./myModule.js` available via `require('myModule')` and 805`./myModule2.js` available via `require('myModule2')`: 806 807```console 808> .\vcbuild link-module './myModule.js' link-module './myModule2.js' 809``` 810 811## Note for downstream distributors of Node.js 812 813The Node.js ecosystem is reliant on ABI compatibility within a major release. 814To maintain ABI compatibility it is required that distributed builds of Node.js 815be built against the same version of dependencies, or similar versions that do 816not break their ABI compatibility, as those released by Node.js for any given 817`NODE_MODULE_VERSION` (located in `src/node_version.h`). 818 819When Node.js is built (with an intention to distribute) with an ABI 820incompatible with the official Node.js builds (e.g. using a ABI incompatible 821version of a dependency), please reserve and use a custom `NODE_MODULE_VERSION` 822by opening a pull request against the registry available at 823<https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/HEAD/doc/abi_version_registry.json>. 824