How to build a native Node.js extension using node-gyp on Win 7 x64 VS2012?

Question

I tried to follow the tutorial how to build a native Node.js extension on Win 7 x64 (VS2012). I created a new directory for the extension and created the hello.cc and bindings.gyp files. Next, I opened a cmd and changed to the extension directory. I ran the following command:+

D:\git\ndext>node-gyp configure --msvs_version=2012
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using node-gyp@0.12.2
gyp info using node@0.10.25 | win32 | x64
gyp info spawn python
gyp info spawn args [ 'C:\\Users\\abc\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\gyp\\gyp_main.py',
gyp info spawn args   'binding.gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-f',
gyp info spawn args   'msvs',
gyp info spawn args   '-G',
gyp info spawn args   'msvs_version=2012',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   'D:\\git\\ndext\\build\\config.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   'C:\\Users\\abc\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\addon.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   'C:\\Users\\abc\\.node-gyp\\0.10.25\\common.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dlibrary=shared_library',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dvisibility=default',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_root_dir=C:\\Users\\abc\\.node-gyp\\0.10.25',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dmodule_root_dir=D:\\git\\ndext',
gyp info spawn args   '--depth=.',
gyp info spawn args   '--generator-output',
gyp info spawn args   'D:\\git\\ndext\\build',
gyp info spawn args   '-Goutput_dir=.' ]

After that I had a new directory build that contains the VS2012 sln and vcproj file. Trying to build this extension in VS2012 fails:

------ Build started: Project: hello, Configuration: Debug x64 ------
1>  hello.cc
1>C:\Users\abc\.node-gyp\0.10.25\deps\v8\include\v8.h(184): warning C4506: no definition for inline function 'v8::Persistent<T> v8::Persistent<T>::New(v8::Handle<T>)'
1>          with
1>          [
1>              T=v8::Object
1>          ]
1>LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'C:\Users\abc\.node-gyp\0.10.25\Debug\node.lib'
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

I understand the error (linker did not find the node.lib in the specified directory). The question is what went wrong with node-gyp configure? Did I forget another parameter?

But building on the cmd using node-gyp build runs successfully...

Answer 1

I finally found a solution that works (at least for me).

Building node.js from source:

• Download the node.js source code from here.
• Extract the node.js source code, open a command line terminal and change to the directory that contains the node.js source code.
• Set the environment variable GYP_MSVS_VERSION to VS2012 by typing set GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2012.
• To build the x64 debug version, enter vcbuild.bat nosign debug x64; if you want to build the x64 release version, enter vcbuild.bat nosign release x64. More details here.

After that, node.js has been successfully build. Also, the VS2012 node.sln and vcprojs have been created by vcbuild.bat. Building in VS2012 also works.

Building a native node.js extension I performed the following steps:

• Open a command line terminal and change to the extension directory.
• node-gyp assumes a default node_root_dir where it looks for all needed sources and libs. Unfortunately, in this default directory, the node.lib was not in the expected directory. Thus, I changed the used node_root_dir to the previous build node.js sources. Assuming the the node.js source directory is D:/git/node-v0.10.25/node-v0.10.25, the command looks like follows:

node-gyp configure --nodedir="D:/git/node-v0.10.25/node-v0.10.25" --msvs_version=2012

Thus, I was able to build the debug and release version of the node.js extension within VS2012 successfully.

Answer 2

If you use everything, you will see node-gyp provides 3 node.lib.

So you can just set Release build in VS.

Answer 3

If you look at the code, you'll notice that you have #include <node.h> not #include <"node.h">. This is because Node-GYP has the Node.js source as a native dep, not as a included file. To build directly from Visual Studio, you would need to somehow instruct it to have node.h (and associated files) available.

Basically, just use node-gyp build.