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doc: improve GN build documentation a bit
PR-URL: #55968 Reviewed-By: Joyee Cheung <joyeec9h3@gmail.com> Reviewed-By: James M Snell <jasnell@gmail.com> Reviewed-By: Rafael Gonzaga <rafael.nunu@hotmail.com> Reviewed-By: Luigi Pinca <luigipinca@gmail.com> Reviewed-By: Stefan Stojanovic <stefan.stojanovic@janeasystems.com> Reviewed-By: Juan José Arboleda <soyjuanarbol@gmail.com>
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‎doc/contributing/gn-build.md‎

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@@ -28,27 +28,33 @@ Node.js contains following GN build files:
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Unlike GYP, the GN tool does not include any built-in rules for compiling a
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project, which means projects building with GN must provide their own build
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configurations for things like how to invoke a C++ compiler. Chromium related
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projects like V8 and skia choose to reuse Chromium's build configurations, and
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V8's Node.js integration testing repository
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([node-ci](https://chromium.googlesource.com/v8/node-ci/)) can be reused for
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building Node.js.
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configurations for things like how to invoke a C++ compiler.
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Chromium related projects like V8 and skia choose to reuse Chromium's build
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configurations, and V8's Node.js integration testing repository
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[`node-ci`][node-ci] can be reused for building Node.js.
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### 1. Install `depot_tools`
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The `depot_tools` is a set of tools used by Chromium related projects for
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checking out code and managing dependencies, and since this guide is reusing the
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infra of V8, it needs to be installed and added to `PATH`:
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You'll need to install [`depot_tools`][depot-tools] the toolset
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used for fetching Chromium and its dependencies.
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```bash
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git clone https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git
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export PATH=/path/to/depot_tools:$PATH
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```
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You can also follow the [official tutorial of
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`depot_tools`](https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-infra-docs/flat/depot_tools/docs/html/depot_tools_tutorial.html).
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You can ensure `depot_tools` is correctly added to your PATH by running
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`which gn` and confirming that it returns `/path/to/depot_tools/gn`.
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**NOTE:** On Windows you'll also need to set the environment variable
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`DEPOT_TOOLS_WIN_TOOLCHAIN=0`. To do so, open `Control Panel` → `System and
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Security` → `System` → `Advanced system settings` and add a system variable
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`DEPOT_TOOLS_WIN_TOOLCHAIN` with value `0`. This tells `depot_tools` to use
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your locally installed version of Visual Studio (by default, `depot_tools` will
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try to download a Google-internal version that only Googlers have access to).
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### 2. Check out code of Node.js
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### 2. Checkout Node.js Source Code
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To check out the latest main branch of Node.js for building, use the `fetch`
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tool from `depot_tools`:
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### 3. Build
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GN only supports [`ninja`](https://ninja-build.org) for building, so to build
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Node.js with GN, `ninja` build files should be generated first, and then
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`ninja` can be invoked to do the building.
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GN only supports [`ninja`](https://ninja-build.org) for building. To build
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Node.js with GN you'll first need to generate `ninja` build files and then invoke
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`ninja` to perform the build.
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The `node-ci` repository provides a script for calling GN:
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@@ -103,9 +109,10 @@ cd node # Enter `node_gn/node` which contains a node-ci checkout
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```
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which writes `ninja` build files into the `out/Release` directory under
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`node_gn/node`.
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`node_gn/node`. To see all possible configurable options, run
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`tools/gn-gen.py --help`.
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And then you can execute `ninja`:
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When `gn-gen.py` has executed successfully, you can then execute `ninja`:
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```bash
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ninja -C out/Release node
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## Status of the GN build
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Currently the GN build of Node.js is not fully functioning. It builds for macOS
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and Linux, while the Windows build is still a work in progress. And some tests
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are still failing with the GN build.
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Currently the GN build of Node.js is not fully functioning. Some tests
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are still failing with the GN build, and there may be other small pitfall
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for certain configuration options.
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An effort is currently underway to make GN build work without using `depot_tools`,
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which is tracked in [#51689](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/51689).
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There are also efforts on making GN build work without using `depot_tools`,
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which is tracked in the issue
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[#51689](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/51689).
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[depot-tools]: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-infra-docs/flat/depot_tools/docs/html/depot_tools_tutorial.html#_setting_up
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[node-ci]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/v8/node-ci

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