How do I deploy Node.js applications as a single executable file? [duplicate]

Question

Supposed I have written a Node.js application, and I now would like to distribute it. Of course, I want to make it easy for the user, hence I do not want him to install Node.js, run npm install and then manually type node app.js.

What I'd prefer was a single executable file, e.g. an .exe file on Windows.

How could I approach this?

I am aware of this thread, anyway this is only about Windows. How could I achieve this in a platform-independent manner? Any ideas? Best practices? ...?

The perfect solution was a "compiler" I can give a source folder to. The source folder contains the app itself in various .js files, the node_modules folder and some metadata, such as the package.json. The output should be binaries for various platforms, such as Windows, OS X and Linux.

Oh, and what's important: I do not want to make any changes to the source code, so calls to require with relative paths should still work, even if this relative path is now inside the packaged app.

Any ideas?

PS: I do not want the user to install Node.js independently, it should be included inside the executable as well.

Answer 1

Meanwhile I have found the (for me) perfect solution: nexe, which creates a single executable from a Node.js application including all of its modules.

It's the next best thing to an ideal solution.

Answer 2

First, we're talking about packaging a Node.js app for workshops, demos, etc. where it can be handy to have an app "just running" without the need for the end user to care about installation and dependencies.

You can try the following setup:

1. Get your apps source code
2. npm install all dependencies (via package.json) to the local node_modules directory. It is important to perform this step on each platform you want to support separately, in case of binary dependencies.
3. Copy the Node.js binary – node.exe on Windows, (probably) /usr/local/bin/node on OS X/Linux to your project's root folder. On OS X/Linux you can find the location of the Node.js binary with which node.

For Windows:
Create a self extracting archive, 7zip_extra supports a way to execute a command right after extraction, see: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/39048-how-to-make-a-7-zip-switchless-installer/.

For OS X/Linux:
You can use tools like makeself or unzipsfx (I don't know if this is compiled with CHEAP_SFX_AUTORUN defined by default).

These tools will extract the archive to a temporary directory, execute the given command (e.g. node app.js) and remove all files when finished.

Answer 3

Not to beat a dead horse, but the solution you're describing sounds a lot like Node-Webkit.

From the Git Page:

node-webkit is an app runtime based on Chromium and node.js. You can write native apps in HTML and JavaScript with node-webkit. It also lets you call Node.js modules directly from the DOM and enables a new way of writing native applications with all Web technologies.

These instructions specifically detail the creation of a single file app that a user can execute, and this portion describes the external dependencies.

I'm not sure if it's the exact solution, but it seems pretty close.

Hope it helps!

Answer 4

JXcore will allow you to turn any nodejs application into a single executable, including all dependencies, in either Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.

Here is a link to the installer: https://github.com/jxcore/jxcore-release

And here is a link to how to set it up: http://jxcore.com/turn-node-applications-into-executables/

It is very easy to use and I have tested it in both Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04.

FYI: JXcore is a fork of NodeJS so it is 100% NodeJS compatible, with some extra features.

Answer 5

In addition to nexe, browserify can be used to bundle up all your dependencies as a single .js file. This does not bundle the actual node executable, just handles the javascript side. It too does not handle native modules. The command line options for pure node compilation would be browserify --output bundle.js --bare --dg false input.js.

Answer 6

There are a number of steps you have to go through to create an installer and it varies for each Operating System. For Example:

• on Mac OS X you need to create a .pkg, there are instructions on how to do that here: https://coolaj86.com/articles/how-to-create-an-osx-pkg-installer.html
• on Ubuntu Linux you need to create a .deb, there are instruction on how to do that here: https://coolaj86.com/articles/how-to-create-a-debian-installer.html
• on Microsoft Windows you need to create a .exe or .msi, there are instruction on how do that using the innosetup installer here: https://coolaj86.com/articles/how-to-create-an-innosetup-installer.html

Answer 7

You could create a git repo and setup a link to the node git repo as a dependency. Then any user who clones the repo could also install node.

#git submodule [--quiet] add [-b branch] [-f|--force]
git submodule add /var/Node-repo.git common

You could easily package a script up to automatically clone the git repo you have hosted somewhere and "install" from one that one script file.

#!/bin/sh
#clone git repo
git clone your-repo.git