Create and package prebuilds for native modules

npm install -g prebuildify

First go to your native module and make a bunch of prebuilds

# got to your native module
cd your-native-module
# build for all electron/node binary versions and strip out symbols
prebuildify --all --strip
# the prebuilds will be stored in ./prebuilds
ls prebuilds

If your module is using the new node core N-API, then you can prebuild using the --napi flag

# prebuild for n-api
prebuildify --napi

Then only remaining thing you need to do now is make your module use a prebuild if one exists for the platform/runtime you are using.

Use node-gyp-build to do this.

# first install node-gyp-build
npm install --save node-gyp-build

Then add node-gyp-build as an install script to your module's package.json

{
  "name": "your-native-module",
  "scripts": {
    "install": "node-gyp-build"
  }
}

The install script will check if a compatible prebuild is bundled. If so it does nothing. If not it will run node-gyp rebuild to produce a build. This means that if the user using your module has disabled install scripts your module will still work (!) as long as a compatible prebuild is bundled.

When loading your native binding from your index.js you should use node-gyp-build as will to make sure to get the right binding

// Will load a compiled build if present or a prebuild.
// If no build if found it will throw an exception
var binding = require('node-gyp-build')(__dirname)

module.exports = binding

An added benefit of this approach is that your native modules will work across multiple node and electron versions without having the user need to reinstall or recompile them - as long as you produce prebuilds for all versions.

When publishing your module to npm remember to include the ./prebuilds folder.

That's it! Happy native hacking.

MIT