Way to build node without builtins?

[wooffie]

Hi, I have a question. It is possible to build Node.js without compilation builtin module (likenode:path, node:stream, etc.) in binary format? I wanna have node.js with "std" modules in .js files.

How I checked compilation done by JS2C. But have we possibility to avoid this and build this modules like typical .js files and use it?

Maybe someone did it, or I can't see some build options...

[AnshulXplore]

Yes, it is technically possible, but it would require significant modifications to Node.js. The built-in modules (like node:path, node:stream, etc.) are compiled into Node.js using JS2C, which converts JavaScript source files into C++ headers for performance reasons.

If you want to use these modules as regular .js files instead of being compiled into the binary, you would need to:

Extract the original JavaScript source files from the Node.js repository.
Modify the build system to exclude JS2C compilation.
Ensure that the Node.js runtime can load these modules as regular JavaScript files without breaking core functionality.
However, this approach may introduce performance overhead, as the core modules would no longer be precompiled. It could also lead to compatibility issues with internal optimizations that Node.js relies on.

Have you explored any existing build options, or are you looking for a custom solution?

[wooffie]

Have we options to build node such way to get JS coverage of node:stream? I checked some test and not found something helpful

[aduh95]

Wouldn't the --node-builtin-modules-path configure flag do kind of that? Or are you thinking of something else?

[vedas-dixit]

Hi
So from what I understand, JS2C compiles built-in modules for performance reasons. If we were to avoid this and use them as .js files, wouldn’t it introduce runtime overhead? Also, does --node-builtin-modules-path fully replace compiled modules with JS versions, or is additional setup needed?