> This project was initialized from [xray](https://github.com/atom/xray)
A minimal library for building compiled Node add-ons in Rust.
This library depends on N-API and requires Node 8.9 or later. It is still pretty raw and has not been tested in a production setting.
One nice feature is that this crate allows you to build add-ons purely with the Rust toolchain and without involving `node-gyp`.
## Building
This repository is a Cargo crate *and* an npm module. Any napi-based add-on should also contain *both*`Cargo.toml` to make it a Cargo crate and a `package.json` to make it an npm module.
In your `Cargo.toml` you need to set the `crate-type` to `"cdylib"` so that cargo builds a C-style shared library that can be dynamically loaded by the Node executable. You'll also want to add this crate as a dependency.
```
[lib]
crate-type = ["cdylib"]
```
Building napi-based add-ons directly with `cargo build` isn't recommended, because you'll need to provide a `NODE_INCLUDE_PATH` pointing to the `include` directory for the version of Node you're targeting, as well as some special linker flags that can't be specified in the Cargo configuration.
Instead, you'll want to use the `napi` script, which will be installed automatically at `node_modules/.bin/napi` if you include `napi` as a dependency in your add-on's `package.json`. The napi script supports the following subcommands.
*`napi build [--debug]` Runs `cargo build` with a `NODE_INCLUDE_PATH` based on the path of the Node executable used to run the script and the required linker flags. The optional `--debug` flag will build in debug mode. After building, the script renames the dynamic library to have the `.node` extension to match the convention in the Node.js ecosystem.
*`napi check` Runs `cargo check` with a `NODE_INCLUDE_PATH` based on the Node executable used to run the script.
The `napi` script will be available on the `PATH` of any scripts you define in the `scripts` section of your `package.json`, enabling a setup like this:
So far, the `napi` build script has only been tested on macOS. See the included `test_module` for an example add-on.
## Testing
Because libraries that depend on this crate must be loaded into a Node executable in order to resolve symbols, all tests are written in JavaScript in the `test_module` subdirectory.
