59 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
59 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
# Using native Node modules
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The native Node modules are supported by Electron, but since Electron is
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using a different V8 version from official Node, you have to manually specify
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the location of Electron's headers when building native modules.
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## Native Node module compatibility
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Since Node v0.11.x there were vital changes in the V8 API. So generally all
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native modules written for Node v0.10.x wouldn't work for newer Node or io.js versions. And
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because Electron internally uses __io.js v3.1.0__, it carries with the same
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problem.
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To solve this, you should use modules that support Node v0.11.x or later,
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[many modules](https://www.npmjs.org/browse/depended/nan) do support both now.
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For old modules that only support Node v0.10.x, you should use the
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[nan](https://github.com/rvagg/nan) module to port it to v0.11.x or later versions of Node or io.js.
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## How to install native modules
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### The Easy Way
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The most straightforward way to rebuild native modules is via the
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[`electron-rebuild`](https://github.com/paulcbetts/electron-rebuild) package,
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which handles the manual steps of downloading headers and building native modules:
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```sh
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npm install --save-dev electron-rebuild
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# Every time you run npm install, run this too
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./node_modules/.bin/electron-rebuild
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```
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### The node-gyp way
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To build Node modules with headers of Electron, you need to tell `node-gyp`
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where to download headers and which version to use:
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```bash
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$ cd /path-to-module/
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$ HOME=~/.electron-gyp node-gyp rebuild --target=0.29.1 --arch=x64 --dist-url=https://atom.io/download/atom-shell
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```
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The `HOME=~/.electron-gyp` changes where to find development headers. The
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`--target=0.29.1` is version of Electron. The `--dist-url=...` specifies
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where to download the headers. The `--arch=x64` says the module is built for
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64bit system.
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### The npm way
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You can also use `npm` to install modules, the steps are exactly the same with
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Node modules, except that you need to setup some environment variables:
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```bash
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export npm_config_disturl=https://atom.io/download/atom-shell
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export npm_config_target=0.29.1
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export npm_config_arch=x64
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HOME=~/.electron-gyp npm install module-name
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```
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