Bugs and feature requests

Use the official repository for bugs, ideas and features requests: https://github.com/Koromix/koffi

Please note that the source code is not in this repository, instead it lives in a monorepo: https://github.com/Koromix/rygel/ (in the src/koffi subdirectory).

Build from source

We provide prebuilt binaries, packaged in the NPM archive, so in most cases it should be as simple as npm install koffi. If you want to hack Koffi or use a specific platform, follow the instructions below.

Start by cloning the repository with Git:

git clone https://github.com/Koromix/rygel
cd rygel

As said before, this is a monorepository containg multiple projects, hence the name.

Windows

First, make sure the following dependencies are met:

• The "Desktop development with C++" workload from Visual Studio 2022 or 2019 or the "C++ build tools" workload from the Build Tools, with the default optional components.
• CMake meta build system
• Node.js 16 or later

Once this is done, run this command from the test or the benchmark directory (depending on what you want to build):

cd src/koffi
node ../cnoke/cnoke.js

Other platforms

Make sure the following dependencies are met:

• gcc and g++ >= 8.3 or newer
• GNU Make 3.81 or newer
• CMake meta build system
• Node.js 16 or later

Once this is done, run this command from the test or the benchmark directory (depending on what you want to build):

cd src/koffi
node ../cnoke/cnoke.js

Run tests

On your machine

Once Koffi is built, you can build the tests and run them with the following commands:

cd src/koffi/test
node ../../cnoke/cnoke.js

node test.js

On virtual machines

Koffi is tested on multiple architectures using emulated (accelerated when possible) QEMU machines. First, you need to install qemu packages, such as qemu-system (or even qemu-system-gui) on Ubuntu.

These machines are not included directly in this repository (for license and size reasons), but they are available here: https://koromix.dev/files/machines/

For example, if you want to run the tests on Debian ARM64, run the following commands:

cd deploy/qemu/

wget -q -O- https://koromix.dev/files/machines/qemu_debian_arm64.tar.zst | zstd -d | tar xv
b3sum -c b3sum.txt

Note that the machine disk content may change each time the machine runs, so the checksum test will fail once a machine has been used at least once.

And now you can run the tests with:

node qemu.js test # Several options are available, use --help

And be patient, this can be pretty slow for emulated machines. The Linux machines have and use ccache to build Koffi, so subsequent build steps will get much more tolerable.

By default, machines are started and stopped for each test. But you can start the machines ahead of time and run the tests multiple times instead:

node qemu.js start # Start the machines
node qemu.js test # Test (without shutting down)
node qemu.js test # Test again
node qemu.js stop # Stop everything

You can also restrict the test to a subset of machines:

# Full test cycle
node qemu.js test debian_x64 debian_i386

# Separate start, test, shutdown
node qemu.js start debian_x64 debian_i386
node qemu.js test debian_x64 debian_i386
node qemu.js stop

Finally, you can join a running machine with SSH with the following shortcut, if you need to do some debugging or any other manual procedure:

node qemu.js ssh debian_i386

Each machine is configured to run a VNC server available locally, which you can use to access the display, using KRDC or any other compatible viewer. Use the info command to get the VNC port.

node qemu.js info debian_x64

Making a release

First, you must update the code in three steps:

• Change the version numbers in package.json (version and stable for stable releases)
• Add an entry to CHANGELOG to summarize the changes since last release
• Commit theses changes with the message Bump Koffi to X.Y.Z

Once this is done, you can publish a new release with the following commands:

node tools/qemu.js test # If not done before
node tools/qemu.js build

cd build/dist
npm publish

Some platforms are emulated so this can take a few minutes until the pre-built binaries are ready. Go grab a cup of coffee, come back and execute the npm publish command!

Code style

Koffi is programmed in a mix of C++ and assembly code (architecture-specific code). It uses node-addon-api (C++ N-API wrapper) to interact with Node.js.

My personal preference goes to a rather C-like C++ style, with careful use of templates (mainly for containers) and little object-oriented programming. I strongly prefer tagged unions and code locality over inheritance and virtual methods. Exceptions are disabled.

Find more information about code style in the monorepository README file.