diff --git a/src/guides/building-node-with-ninja.md b/src/guides/building-node-with-ninja.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2482e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/guides/building-node-with-ninja.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +# Building Node with Ninja + +The purpose of this guide is to show how to build Node.js using [Ninja][], as doing so can be much quicker than using `make`. Please see [Ninja's site][Ninja] for installation instructions (unix only). + +To build Node with ninja, there are 4 steps that must be taken: +1. Configure the project via `./configure` as usual. +2. Make `tools/gyp_node.py` produce Ninja output. +3. Run Ninja in `out/Release` to produce release output. +4. Link `out/Release/node` to `./node`. + +Those 4 steps can be achieved with the following commands: +1. `./configure` (regular configure based on OS) +2. `tools/gyp_node.py -f ninja` (passes `-f ninja` to `gyp`) +3. `ninja -C out/Release` (run `ninja` within the `out/Release` directory, where ninja instructions were put) +4. `ln -fs out/Release/node node` (create a link to `./node`, using `-f` to overwrite and `-s` to make a symlink) + +When running `ninja -C out/Release` you will see similar output if the build has succeeded: +``` +ninja: Entering directory `out/Release` +[4/4] LINK node, POSTBUILDS +``` + +The bottom line will change while building, showing the progress as `[finished/total]` build steps. +This is useful output that `make` does not produce and is one of the benefits of using Ninja. +Also, Ninja will likely compile much faster than even `make -j8` (or `-j`). + +## Considerations + +Ninja builds vary slightly from `make` builds. If you wish to run `make test` after, `make` will likely still need to rebuild some amount of Node. However, it is likely still faster. To get around this, be sure to always run `make` with `-j`. + +## Alias + +`alias nnode='./configure && tools/gyp_node.py -f ninja && ninja -C out/Release && ln -fs out/Release/node node'` + +## Producing a debug build + +The above alias can be modified slightly to produce a debug build, rather than a release build as shown below: +`alias nnodedebug='./configure && tools/gyp_node.py -f ninja && ninja -C out/Debug && ln -fs out/Debug/node node_g'` + + +[Ninja]: https://martine.github.io/ninja/