napi-build-utils

A set of utilities to assist developers of tools that build Node-API native add-ons.

Background

This module is targeted to developers creating tools that build Node-API native add-ons.

It implements a set of functions that aid in determining the Node-API version supported by the currently running Node instance and the set of Node-API versions against which the Node-API native add-on is designed to be built. Other functions determine whether a particular Node-API version can be built and can issue console warnings for unsupported Node-API versions.

Unlike the modules this code is designed to facilitate building, this module is written entirely in JavaScript.

Quick start

npm install napi-build-utils

The module exports a set of functions documented here. For example:

var napiBuildUtils = require('napi-build-utils');
var napiVersion = napiBuildUtils.getNapiVersion(); // Node-API version supported by Node, or undefined.

Declaring supported Node-API versions

Native modules that are designed to work with Node-API must explicitly declare the Node-API version(s) against which they are coded to build. This is accomplished by including a binary.napi_versions property in the module's package.json file. For example:

"binary": {
  "napi_versions": [2,3]
}

In the absence of a need to compile against a specific Node-API version, the value 3 is a good choice as this is the Node-API version that was supported when Node-API left experimental status.

Modules that are built against a specific Node-API version will continue to operate indefinitely, even as later versions of Node-API are introduced.

History

v2.0.0 This version was introduced to address a limitation when the Node-API version reached 10 in NodeJS v23.6.0. There was no change in the API, but a SemVer bump to 2.0.0 was made out of an abundance of caution.

Support

If you run into problems or limitations, please file an issue and we'll take a look. Pull requests are also welcome.