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doc: improve GN build documentation a bit #55968

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doc: improve GN build documentation a bit #55968

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53 changes: 31 additions & 22 deletions doc/contributing/gn-build.md
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Expand Up @@ -28,27 +28,33 @@ Node.js contains following GN build files:

Unlike GYP, the GN tool does not include any built-in rules for compiling a
project, which means projects building with GN must provide their own build
configurations for things like how to invoke a C++ compiler. Chromium related
projects like V8 and skia choose to reuse Chromium's build configurations, and
V8's Node.js integration testing repository
([node-ci](https://chromium.googlesource.com/v8/node-ci/)) can be reused for
building Node.js.
configurations for things like how to invoke a C++ compiler.

Chromium related projects like V8 and skia choose to reuse Chromium's build
configurations, and V8's Node.js integration testing repository
[`node-ci`][node-ci] can be reused for building Node.js.

### 1. Install `depot_tools`

The `depot_tools` is a set of tools used by Chromium related projects for
checking out code and managing dependencies, and since this guide is reusing the
infra of V8, it needs to be installed and added to `PATH`:
You'll need to install [`depot_tools`][depot-tools] the toolset
used for fetching Chromium and its dependencies.

```bash
git clone https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git
export PATH=/path/to/depot_tools:$PATH
```

You can also follow the [official tutorial of
`depot_tools`](https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-infra-docs/flat/depot_tools/docs/html/depot_tools_tutorial.html).
You can ensure `depot_tools` is correctly added to your PATH by running
`which gn` and confirming that it returns `/path/to/depot_tools/gn`.

**NOTE:** On Windows you'll also need to set the environment variable
`DEPOT_TOOLS_WIN_TOOLCHAIN=0`. To do so, open `Control Panel` → `System and
Security` → `System` → `Advanced system settings` and add a system variable
`DEPOT_TOOLS_WIN_TOOLCHAIN` with value `0`. This tells `depot_tools` to use
your locally installed version of Visual Studio (by default, `depot_tools` will
try to download a Google-internal version that only Googlers have access to).

### 2. Check out code of Node.js
### 2. Checkout Node.js Source Code

To check out the latest main branch of Node.js for building, use the `fetch`
tool from `depot_tools`:
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -91,9 +97,9 @@ out at `node_gn/node/node`.

### 3. Build

GN only supports [`ninja`](https://ninja-build.org) for building, so to build
Node.js with GN, `ninja` build files should be generated first, and then
`ninja` can be invoked to do the building.
GN only supports [`ninja`](https://ninja-build.org) for building. To build
Node.js with GN you'll first need to generate `ninja` build files and then invoke
`ninja` to perform the build.

The `node-ci` repository provides a script for calling GN:

Expand All @@ -103,9 +109,10 @@ cd node # Enter `node_gn/node` which contains a node-ci checkout
```

which writes `ninja` build files into the `out/Release` directory under
`node_gn/node`.
`node_gn/node`. To see all possible configurable options, run
`tools/gn-gen.py --help`.

And then you can execute `ninja`:
When `gn-gen.py` has executed successfully, you can then execute `ninja`:

```bash
ninja -C out/Release node
Expand All @@ -116,10 +123,12 @@ After the build is completed, the compiled Node.js executable can be found in

## Status of the GN build

Currently the GN build of Node.js is not fully functioning. It builds for macOS
and Linux, while the Windows build is still a work in progress. And some tests
are still failing with the GN build.
Currently the GN build of Node.js is not fully functioning. Some tests
are still failing with the GN build, and there may be other small pitfall
for certain configuration options.

An effort is currently underway to make GN build work without using `depot_tools`,
which is tracked in [#51689](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/51689).

There are also efforts on making GN build work without using `depot_tools`,
which is tracked in the issue
[#51689](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/51689).
[depot-tools]: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-infra-docs/flat/depot_tools/docs/html/depot_tools_tutorial.html#_setting_up
[node-ci]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/v8/node-ci
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