From 3623cf7ec7c4a9534848932ae74350fe39e2bb96 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joyee Cheung Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2017 03:54:43 +0800 Subject: [PATCH] doc: add guide on maintaining build files PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/16975 Reviewed-By: Richard Lau Reviewed-By: Rod Vagg Reviewed-By: Gibson Fahnestock --- doc/guides/maintaining-the-build-files.md | 52 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/guides/maintaining-the-build-files.md diff --git a/doc/guides/maintaining-the-build-files.md b/doc/guides/maintaining-the-build-files.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000000..c9dd155dd80269 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/guides/maintaining-the-build-files.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +# Maintaining the Build files + +This document explains how to maintain the build files in the codebase. + +## Overview + +On how to build the Node.js core, see [Building Node.js](../../BUILDING.md). + +There are three main build files that may be directly run when building Node.js: + +- `configure`: A Python 2 script that detects system capabilities and runs + [GYP][]. It generates `config.gypi` which includes parameters used by GYP to + create platform-dependent build files. Its output is usually in one of these + formats: Makefile, MSbuild, ninja, or XCode project files. (Note: the main + Makefile mentioned below is maintained separately by humans). For a detailed + guide on this script, see [configure](#configure). +- `vcbuild.bat`: A Windows Batch Script that locates build tools, provides a + subset of the targets avilable in the [Makefile](#makefile), and a few targets + of its own. For a detailed guide on this script, see + [vcbuild.bat](#vcbuild.bat). +- `Makefile`: A Makefile that can be run with GNU Make. It provides a set of + targets that build and test the Node.js binary, produce releases and + documentation, and interact with the CI to run benchmarks or tests. For a + detailed guide on this file, see [Makefile](#makefile). + +On Windows `vcbuild.bat` runs [configure](#configure) before building the +Node.js binary, on other systems `configure` must be run manually before running +`make` on the `Makefile`. + +## vcbuild.bat + +To see the help text, run `.\vcbuild help`. Update this file when you need to +update the build and testing process on Windows. + +## configure + +To see the help text, run `python configure --help`. Update this file when you +need to update the configuration process. + +## Makefile + +To see the help text, run `make help`. This file is not generated, it is +maintained by humans. Note that this is not usually run on Windows, where +[vcbuild.bat](#vcbuild.bat) is used instead. + +### Options + +- `-j `: number of threads used to build the binary. Note that on the non-ci + targets, the parallel tests will take up all the available cores, regardless + of this option. + +[GYP]: https://gyp.gsrc.io/docs/UserDocumentation.md