Depending on what platform or features you need, the build process may differ. After you've built a binary, running the test suite to confirm that the binary works as intended is a good next step.
If you can reproduce a test failure, search for it in the Node.js issue tracker or file a new issue.
- Supported platforms
- Building Node.js on supported platforms
Intl(ECMA-402) support- Building Node.js with FIPS-compliant OpenSSL
- Building Node.js with external core modules
- Note for downstream distributors of Node.js
This list of supported platforms is current as of the branch/release to which it belongs.
Node.js relies on V8 and libuv. We adopt a subset of their supported platforms.
There are three support tiers:
- Tier 1: These platforms represent the majority of Node.js users. The Node.js Build Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test coverage. All commits to the Node.js repository are tested on multiple variants of these platforms. Test failures on tier 1 platforms will block releases.
- Tier 2: These platforms represent smaller segments of the Node.js user base. The Node.js Build Working Group maintains infrastructure for full test coverage. All commits to the Node.js repository are tested on multiple variants of these platforms where practical. Test failures on tier 2 platforms will block releases. Delays in release of binaries for these platforms are acceptable where necessary due to infrastructure concerns.
- Experimental: May not compile or test suite may not pass. The core team does not create releases for these platforms. Test failures on experimental platforms do not block releases. Contributions to improve support for these platforms are welcome.
Platforms may move between tiers between major release lines. The table below will be updated to reflect those changes.
Compiling and running Node.js is supported for a limited set of operating systems, architectures and libc versions. The table below lists the combinations that the core team has committed to supporting and the nature of that support as per the support tiers above. A list of supported compile toolchains is also supplied for tier 1 platforms.
For production applications, run Node.js on supported platforms only.
Node.js does not support a platform version if a vendor has expired support for it. In other words, Node.js does not support running on End-of-Life (EoL) platforms. This is true regardless of entries in the table below.
| Operating System | Architectures | Versions | Support Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 3.10, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 16.04 1, Debian 9, EL 7 2 |
| GNU/Linux | x64 | kernel >= 3.10, musl >= 1.1.19 | Experimental | e.g. Alpine 3.8 |
| GNU/Linux | x86 | kernel >= 3.10, glibc >= 2.17 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 10 |
| GNU/Linux | arm64 | kernel >= 4.5, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 16.04, Debian 9, EL 7 3 |
| GNU/Linux | armv7 | kernel >= 4.14, glibc >= 2.24 | Tier 1 | e.g. Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 9 |
| GNU/Linux | armv6 | kernel >= 4.14, glibc >= 2.24 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 12 |
| GNU/Linux | ppc64le >=power8 | kernel >= 3.10.0, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 2 | e.g. Ubuntu 16.04 1, EL 7 2 |
| GNU/Linux | s390x | kernel >= 3.10.0, glibc >= 2.17 | Tier 2 | e.g. EL 7 2 |
| Windows | x64, x86 (WoW64) | >= Windows 7/2008 R2/2012 R2 | Tier 1 | 4,5 |
| Windows | x86 (native) | >= Windows 7/2008 R2/2012 R2 | Tier 1 (running) / Experimental (compiling) 6 | |
| Windows | arm64 | >= Windows 10 | Experimental | |
| macOS | x64 | >= 10.11 | Tier 1 | |
| SmartOS | x64 | >= 18 | Tier 2 | |
| AIX | ppc64be >=power7 | >= 7.2 TL02 | Tier 2 | |
| FreeBSD | x64 | >= 11 | Experimental | Downgraded as of Node.js 12 |
1: GCC 6 is not provided on the base platform, users will need the Toolchain test builds PPA or similar to source a newer compiler.
2: GCC 6 is not provided on the base platform, users will need the devtoolset-6 or later to source a newer compiler.
3: Older kernel versions may work for ARM64, however the Node.js test infrastructure only tests >= 4.5.
4: On Windows, running Node.js in Windows terminal emulators
like mintty requires the usage of winpty
for the tty channels to work correctly (e.g. winpty node.exe script.js).
In "Git bash" if you call the node shell alias (node without the .exe
extension), winpty is used automatically.
5: The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is not directly
supported, but the GNU/Linux build process and binaries should work. The
community will only address issues that reproduce on native GNU/Linux
systems. Issues that only reproduce on WSL should be reported in the
WSL issue tracker. Running the
Windows binary (node.exe) in WSL is not recommended. It will not work
without workarounds such as stdio redirection.
6: Running Node.js on x86 Windows should work and binaries are provided. However, tests in our infrastructure only run on WoW64. Furthermore, compiling on x86 Windows is currently considered Experimental and may not be possible.
Depending on the host platform, the selection of toolchains may vary.
| Operating System | Compiler Versions |
|---|---|
| Linux | GCC >= 6.3 |
| Windows | Visual Studio >= 2017 with the Windows 10 SDK on a 64-bit host |
| macOS | Xcode >= 10 (Apple LLVM >= 10) |
Binaries at https://nodejs.org/download/release/ are produced on:
| Binary package | Platform and Toolchain |
|---|---|
| aix-ppc64 | AIX 7.1 TL05 on PPC64BE with GCC 6 |
| darwin-x64 (and .pkg) | macOS 10.11, Xcode Command Line Tools 10 with -mmacosx-version-min=10.10 |
| linux-arm64 | CentOS 7 with devtoolset-6 / GCC 6 |
| linux-armv7l | Cross-compiled on Ubuntu 16.04 x64 with custom GCC toolchain |
| linux-ppc64le | CentOS 7 with devtoolset-6 / GCC 6 7 |
| linux-s390x | RHEL 7 with devtoolset-6 / GCC 6 7 |
| linux-x64 | CentOS 7 with devtoolset-6 / GCC 6 7 |
| sunos-x64 | SmartOS 18 with GCC 7 |
| win-x64 and win-x86 | Windows 2012 R2 (x64) with Visual Studio 2017 |
7: The Enterprise Linux devtoolset-6 allows us to compile
binaries with GCC 6 but linked to the glibc and libstdc++ versions of the host
platforms (CentOS 7 / RHEL 7). Therefore, binaries produced on these systems
are compatible with glibc >= 2.17 and libstdc++ >= 6.0.20 (GLIBCXX_3.4.20).
These are available on distributions natively supporting GCC 4.9, such as
Ubuntu 14.04 and Debian 8.
OpenSSL-1.1.1 requires the following assembler version for use of asm support on x86_64 and ia32.
For use of AVX-512,
- gas (GNU assembler) version 2.26 or higher
- nasm version 2.11.8 or higher in Windows
AVX-512 is disabled for Skylake-X by OpenSSL-1.1.1.
For use of AVX2,
- gas (GNU assembler) version 2.23 or higher
- Xcode version 5.0 or higher
- llvm version 3.3 or higher
- nasm version 2.10 or higher in Windows
Please refer to https://www.openssl.org/docs/man1.1.1/man3/OPENSSL_ia32cap.html for details.
If compiling without one of the above, use configure with the
--openssl-no-asm flag. Otherwise, configure will fail.
Supported platforms and toolchains change with each major version of Node.js. This document is only valid for the current major version of Node.js. Consult previous versions of this document for older versions of Node.js:
The Node.js project uses Python as part of its build process and has historically only been Python 2 compatible.
Python 2 will reach its end-of-life at the end of 2019 at which point the interpreter will cease receiving updates. See https://python3statement.org/ for more information.
The Node.js project is in the process of transitioning its Python code to Python 3 compatibility. Installing both versions of Python while building and testing Node.js allows developers and end users to test, benchmark, and debug Node.js running on both versions to ensure a smooth and complete transition before the year-end deadline.
gccandg++>= 6.3 or newer, or- GNU Make 3.81 or newer
- Python (see note above)
- Python 2.7
- Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 are experimental.
Installation via Linux package manager can be achieved with:
- Ubuntu, Debian:
sudo apt-get install python g++ make - Fedora:
sudo dnf install python gcc-c++ make - CentOS and RHEL:
sudo yum install python gcc-c++ make - OpenSUSE:
sudo zypper install python gcc-c++ make
FreeBSD and OpenBSD users may also need to install libexecinfo.
- Xcode Command Line Tools >= 10 for macOS
- Python (see note above)
- Python 2.7
- Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 are experimental.
macOS users can install the Xcode Command Line Tools by running
xcode-select --install. Alternatively, if you already have the full Xcode
installed, you can find them under the menu Xcode -> Open Developer Tool -> More Developer Tools.... This step will install clang, clang++, and
make.
If the path to your build directory contains a space, the build will likely fail.
To build Node.js:
$ ./configure
$ make -j4If you run into a No module named 'distutils.spawn' error when executing
./configure, please try python3 -m pip install --upgrade setuptools or
sudo apt install python3-distutils -y.
For more information, see nodejs#30189.
The -j4 option will cause make to run 4 simultaneous compilation jobs which
may reduce build time. For more information, see the
GNU Make Documentation.
The above requires that python resolves to a supported version of
Python. See Prerequisites.
After building, setting up firewall rules can avoid popups asking to accept incoming network connections when running tests.
Running the following script on macOS will add the firewall rules for the
executable node in the out directory and the symbolic node link in the
project's root directory.
$ sudo ./tools/macos-firewall.shTo verify the build:
$ make test-onlyAt this point, you are ready to make code changes and re-run the tests.
If you are running tests before submitting a Pull Request, the recommended command is:
$ make -j4 testmake -j4 test does a full check on the codebase, including running linters and
documentation tests.
Make sure the linter does not report any issues and that all tests pass. Please do not submit patches that fail either check.
If you want to run the linter without running tests, use
make lint/vcbuild lint. It will lint JavaScript, C++, and Markdown files.
If you are updating tests and want to run tests in a single test file
(e.g. test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js):
$ python tools/test.py test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js
You can execute the entire suite of tests for a given subsystem by providing the name of a subsystem:
$ python tools/test.py -J --mode=release child-process
If you want to check the other options, please refer to the help by using
the --help option:
$ python tools/test.py --help
You can usually run tests directly with node:
$ ./node ./test/parallel/test-stream2-transform.js
Remember to recompile with make -j4 in between test runs if you change code in
the lib or src directories.
The tests attempt to detect support for IPv6 and exclude IPv6 tests if appropriate. If your main interface has IPv6 addresses, then your loopback interface must also have '::1' enabled. For some default installations on Ubuntu that does not seem to be the case. To enable '::1' on the loopback interface on Ubuntu:
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6=0You can use node-code-ide-configs to run/debug tests, if your IDE configs are present.
It's good practice to ensure any code you add or change is covered by tests. You can do so by running the test suite with coverage enabled:
$ ./configure --coverage
$ make coverageA detailed coverage report will be written to coverage/index.html for
JavaScript coverage and to coverage/cxxcoverage.html for C++ coverage
(if you only want to run the JavaScript tests then you do not need to run
the first command ./configure --coverage).
Generating a test coverage report can take several minutes.
To collect coverage for a subset of tests you can set the CI_JS_SUITES and
CI_NATIVE_SUITES variables (to run specific suites, e.g., child-process, in
isolation, unset the opposing _SUITES variable):
$ CI_JS_SUITES=child-process CI_NATIVE_SUITES= make coverage
The above command executes tests for the child-process subsystem and
outputs the resulting coverage report.
Alternatively, you can run make coverage-run-js, to execute JavaScript tests
independently of the C++ test suite:
$ CI_JS_SUITES=fs CI_NATIVE_SUITES= make coverage-run-js
The make coverage command downloads some tools to the project root directory.
To clean up after generating the coverage reports:
$ make coverage-cleanTo build the documentation:
This will build Node.js first (if necessary) and then use it to build the docs:
$ make docIf you have an existing Node.js build, you can build just the docs with:
$ NODE=/path/to/node make doc-onlyTo read the documentation:
$ man doc/node.1If you prefer to read the documentation in a browser,
run the following after make doc is finished:
$ make docopenThis will open a browser with the documentation.
To test if Node.js was built correctly:
$ ./node -e "console.log('Hello from Node.js ' + process.version)"To install this version of Node.js into a system directory:
$ [sudo] make installIf you run into an issue where the information provided by the JS stack trace is not enough, or if you suspect the error happens outside of the JS VM, you can try to build a debug enabled binary:
$ ./configure --debug
$ make -j4make with ./configure --debug generates two binaries, the regular release
one in out/Release/node and a debug binary in out/Debug/node, only the
release version is actually installed when you run make install.
To use the debug build with all the normal dependencies overwrite the release version in the install directory:
$ make install --prefix=/opt/node-debug/
$ cp -a -f out/Debug/node /opt/node-debug/nodeWhen using the debug binary, core dumps will be generated in case of crashes. These core dumps are useful for debugging when provided with the corresponding original debug binary and system information.
Reading the core dump requires gdb built on the same platform the core dump
was captured on (i.e. 64-bit gdb for node built on a 64-bit system, Linux
gdb for node built on Linux) otherwise you will get errors like
not in executable format: File format not recognized.
Example of generating a backtrace from the core dump:
$ gdb /opt/node-debug/node core.node.8.1535359906
$ backtrace- Python 2.7
- The "Desktop development with C++" workload from Visual Studio 2017 or 2019 or the "Visual C++ build tools" workload from the Build Tools, with the default optional components.
- Basic Unix tools required for some tests,
Git for Windows includes Git Bash
and tools which can be included in the global
PATH. - The NetWide Assembler, for OpenSSL assembler modules.
If not installed in the default location, it needs to be manually added
to
PATH. A build with theopenssl-no-asmoption does not need this, nor does a build targeting ARM64 Windows.
Optional requirements to build the MSI installer package:
- The WiX Toolset v3.11 and the Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension or the Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2019 Extension.
Optional requirements for compiling for Windows 10 on ARM (ARM64):
- ARM64 Windows build machine
- Due to a GYP limitation, this is required to run compiled code generation tools (like V8's builtins and mksnapshot tools)
- Visual Studio 15.9.0 or newer
- Visual Studio optional components
- Visual C++ compilers and libraries for ARM64
- Visual C++ ATL for ARM64
- Windows 10 SDK 10.0.17763.0 or newer
A Boxstarter script can be used for easy setup of Windows systems with all the required prerequisites for Node.js development. This script will install the following Chocolatey packages:
- Git for Windows with the
gitand Unix tools added to thePATH. - Python 3.x and legacy Python
- Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools with Visual C++ workload
- NetWide Assembler
To install Node.js prerequisites using Boxstarter WebLauncher, open https://boxstarter.org/package/nr/url?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nodejs/node/master/tools/bootstrap/windows_boxstarter with Internet Explorer or Edge browser on the target machine.
Alternatively, you can use PowerShell. Run those commands from an elevated PowerShell terminal:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://boxstarter.org/bootstrapper.ps1'))
get-boxstarter -Force
Install-BoxstarterPackage https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nodejs/node/master/tools/bootstrap/windows_boxstarter -DisableRebootsThe entire installation using Boxstarter will take up approximately 10 GB of disk space.
If the path to your build directory contains a space or a non-ASCII character, the build will likely fail.
> .\vcbuildTo run the tests:
> .\vcbuild testTo test if Node.js was built correctly:
> Release\node -e "console.log('Hello from Node.js', process.version)"Android is not a supported platform. Patches to improve the Android build are welcome. There is no testing on Android in the current continuous integration environment. The participation of people dedicated and determined to improve Android building, testing, and support is encouraged.
Be sure you have downloaded and extracted Android NDK before in a folder. Then run:
$ ./android-configure /path/to/your/android-ndk
$ makeIntl support is enabled by default.
This is the default option.
$ ./configure --with-intl=full-icu> .\vcbuild full-icuIn this configuration, only English data is included, but
the full Intl (ECMA-402) APIs. It does not need to download
any dependencies to function. You can add full data at runtime.
$ ./configure --with-intl=small-icu> .\vcbuild small-icuThe Intl object will not be available, nor some other APIs such as
String.normalize.
$ ./configure --without-intl> .\vcbuild without-intl$ pkg-config --modversion icu-i18n && ./configure --with-intl=system-icuIf you are cross-compiling, your pkg-config must be able to supply a path
that works for both your host and target environments.
You can find other ICU releases at
the ICU homepage.
Download the file named something like icu4c-**##.#**-src.tgz (or
.zip).
To check the minimum recommended ICU, run ./configure --help and see
the help for the --with-icu-source option. A warning will be printed
during configuration if the ICU version is too old.
From an already-unpacked ICU:
$ ./configure --with-intl=[small-icu,full-icu] --with-icu-source=/path/to/icuFrom a local ICU tarball:
$ ./configure --with-intl=[small-icu,full-icu] --with-icu-source=/path/to/icu.tgzFrom a tarball URL:
$ ./configure --with-intl=full-icu --with-icu-source=http://url/to/icu.tgzFirst unpack latest ICU to deps/icu
icu4c-##.#-src.tgz (or .zip)
as deps/icu (You'll have: deps/icu/source/...)
> .\vcbuild full-icuThe current version of Node.js does not support FIPS.
It is possible to specify one or more JavaScript text files to be bundled in the binary as built-in modules when building Node.js.
This command will make /root/myModule.js available via
require('/root/myModule') and ./myModule2.js available via
require('myModule2').
$ ./configure --link-module '/root/myModule.js' --link-module './myModule2.js'To make ./myModule.js available via require('myModule') and
./myModule2.js available via require('myModule2'):
> .\vcbuild link-module './myModule.js' link-module './myModule2.js'The Node.js ecosystem is reliant on ABI compatibility within a major release.
To maintain ABI compatibility it is required that distributed builds of Node.js
be built against the same version of dependencies, or similar versions that do
not break their ABI compatibility, as those released by Node.js for any given
NODE_MODULE_VERSION (located in src/node_version.h).
When Node.js is built (with an intention to distribute) with an ABI
incompatible with the official Node.js builds (e.g. using a ABI incompatible
version of a dependency), please reserve and use a custom NODE_MODULE_VERSION
by opening a pull request against the registry available at
https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/master/doc/abi_version_registry.json.