How to make exe files from a node js app

Question

I have a node app that I wrote  that I run as follows   node exe app js inputArg  Is there some way I can package this into a  exe by itself  So I can just do something like this   App exe inputArg  I have some way of faking this by using a batch file  so I can do this   App bat inputArg  But this requires that I have all the dependencies and node in that folder  which is not ideal

User · Answer

Haven t tried it  but nexe looks like nexe can do this   https   github com crcn nexe

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By default  Windows associates  js files with the Windows Script Host  Microsoft s stand-alone JS runtime engine   If you type script js at a command prompt  or double-click a  js file in Explorer   the script is executed by wscript exe   This may be solving a local problem with a global setting  but you could associate  js files with node exe instead  so that typing script js at a command prompt or double-clicking dragging items onto scripts will launch them with Node   Of course  if mdash like me mdash you ve associated  js files with an editor so that double-clicking them opens up your favorite text editor  this suggestion won t do much good   You could also add a right-click menu entry of  Execute with Node  to  js files  although this alternative doesn t solve your command-line needs     The simplest solution is probably to just use a batch file  ndash  you don t have to have a copy of Node in the folder your script resides in   Just reference the Node executable absolutely    C  Program Files  x86  nodejs node exe  app js        Another alternative is this very simple C  app which will start Node using its own filename    js as the script to run  and pass along any command line arguments   class Program       static void Main string   args                var info   System Diagnostics Process GetCurrentProcess            var proc   new System Diagnostics ProcessStartInfo   C  Program Files  x86  nodejs node exe          info ProcessName     js       String Join      args            proc UseShellExecute   false          System Diagnostics Process Start proc             So if you name the resulting EXE  app exe   you can type app arg1     and Node will be started with the command line  app js  arg1       Note the C  bootstrapper app will immediately exit  leaving Node in charge of the console window   Since this is probably of relatively wide interest  I went ahead and made this available on GitHub  including the compiled exe if getting in to vans with strangers is your thing

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I did find any of these solutions met my requirements  so made my own version of node called node2exe that does this  It s available from https   github com areve node2exe

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There a few alternatives  both free and commercial  I haven t used any of them but in theory they should work    Iexpress  native windows tool  Quick Batch File Compiler  commercial  BoxedApp Packer  Advanced  Batch To EXE Converter   freeware    Most will require you to keep the batch file as main executable  and then bundle node exe and your scripts   Depending on your script  you also have the option to port it to JSDB  which supports an easy way to create executables by simply appending resources to it   A third quasi-solution is to keep node somewhere like C  utils and add this folder to your PATH environment variable  Then you can create  bat files in that dir that run node   your preferred scripts - I got coffeescript s coffee working on windows this way  This setup can be automated with a batch file  vb script or installer

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There is an opensource build tool project called nodebob   I assume that working platform windows     simply clone or download project copy all node-webkit project files of yours into the app folder  run the build bat script    You will find the executable file inside the release folder

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I was using below technology    vercel ncc  this make sure we bundle all necessary dependency into single file  pkg  this to make exe file   Let do below   npm i -g  vercel ncc  ncc build app ts -o dist  my entry file is app ts  output is in dist folder  make sure you run in folder where package json and app ts reside  after run above you may see the index js file in the folder dist   npm install -g pkg  installing pkg   pkg index js  make sure you are in the dist folder above

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Got tired of starting on win from command prompt then I ran across this as well  Slightly improved ver  over what josh3736  This uses an XML file to grab a few settings  For example the path to Node exe as well as the file to start in the default app js  Also the environment to load  production  dev etc  that you have specified in your app js  or server js or whatever you called it   Essentially it adds the NODE ENV  0  where  0  is the name of your configuration in app js as a var for you  You do this by modifying the  mode  element in the config xml  You can grab the project here     github  Note in the Post Build events you can modify the copy paths to auto copy over your config xml and the executable to your Nodejs directory  just to save a step  Otherwise edit these out or your build will throw a warning   var startInfo   new ProcessStartInfo            startInfo FileName   nodepath          startInfo Arguments   apppath          startInfo UseShellExecute   false          startInfo CreateNoWindow   false          startInfo WindowStyle   ProcessWindowStyle Hidden           if env Length  gt  0              startInfo EnvironmentVariables Add  NODE ENV   env            try                       using  Process p   Process Start startInfo                                 p WaitForExit                                    catch  Exception ex                        MessageBox Show ex Message ToString     Start Error   MessageBoxButtons OK

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I m recommending you BoxedApp for that  It is a commercial product that working very well  It works for any NodeJS app  The end-user will get just one EXE file for your app  No need for installation   In Electron  for example  the end user needs to install uncompress your app  and he will see all the source files of your code   BoxedApp It is packaging all the files and dependencies that your NodeJS app needs  It supports compressions  and the compiled file works on Windows XP   When you use it  be sure to add Node EXE to the compiled app  Choose a node version that supports Windows XP  If you need this   The program supports command line arguments  So after package  you can do  c  myApp argument1   And you can get the argument in your node code   process argv 1    Sometimes your app has files dependencies  so in BoxedApp you can add any folder and file as a dependency  for example  you can insert a settings file   var mySettings require  fs   readFileSync    settings jgon   toString     More info    The company The product Download trial      Just a note  usually I m recommending about open-source free software  but in this case I didn t found anything that gets the job done

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For anyone stumbling upon this question  there are now two projects that create exes out of your node projects  Pkg and Electron atom io   they differ slightly             Pkg will compile your project to native code  they also include assets AND a nodejs installation   the system won t need to install nodejs to execute the  exe    Your source code will not be included   The resulting executable is Windows ONLY    exe    All platforms are supported now  It now requires a licence for commercial products  Fully open source  Electron atom io while it will not compact and generate an  exe for you  it CAN be used to distribute nodejs apps since they offer a way to distribute applications  The benefits are that electron is multi-platform   windows  mac osx  linux    the cons are that your source code WILL be included  even tough they offer a way to distribute your app inside an asar archive  It will not be bulletproof but it s still better than your source in plain

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Try disclose  https   github com pmq20 disclose  disclose essentially makes a self-extracting exe out of your Node js project and Node js interpreter with the following characteristics    No GUI  Pure CLI  No run-time dependencies Supports both Windows and Unix Runs slowly for the first time  extracting to a cache dir   then fast forever   Try node-compiler  https   github com pmq20 node-compiler  I have made a new project called node-compiler to compile your Node js project into one single executable   It is better than disclose in that it never runs slowly for the first time  since your source code is compiled together with Node js interpreter  just like the standard Node js libraries   Additionally  it redirect file and directory requests transparently to the memory instead of to the file system at runtime  So that no source code is required to run the compiled product   How it works  https   speakerdeck com pmq20 node-dot-js-compiler-compiling-your-node-dot-js-application-into-a-single-executable  Comparing with Similar Projects    pkg https   github com zeit pkg   Pkg hacked fs   API s dynamically in order to access in-package files  whereas Node js Compiler leaves them alone and instead works on a deeper level via libsquash  Pkg uses JSON to store in-package files while Node js Compiler uses the more sophisticated and widely used SquashFS as its data structure  EncloseJS http   enclosejs com    EncloseJS restricts access to in-package files to only five fs   API s  whereas Node js Compiler supports all fs   API s  EncloseJS is proprietary licensed and charges money when used while Node js Compiler is MIT-licensed and users are both free to use it and free to modify it  Nexe https   github com nexe nexe   Nexe does not support dynamic require because of its use of browserify  whereas Node js Compiler supports all kinds of require including require resolve  asar https   github com electron asar   Asar uses JSON to store files  information while Node js Compiler uses SquashFS  Asar keeps the code archive and the executable separate while Node js Compiler links all JavaScript source code together with the Node js virtual machine and generates a single executable as the final product  AppImage http   appimage org    AppImage supports only Linux with a kernel that supports SquashFS  while Node js Compiler supports all three platforms of Linux  macOS and Windows  meanwhile without any special feature requirements from the kernel

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I ve been exploring this topic for some days and here is what I found  Options fall into two categories  If you want to build a desktop app the best options are   1- NW js  lets you call all Node js modules directly from DOM and enables a new way of writing applications with all Web technologies  2- Electron  Build cross platform desktop apps with JavaScript  HTML  and CSS  Here is a good comparison between them  NW js  amp  Electron Compared  I think NW js is better and it also provides an application to compile JS files  There are also some standalone executable and installer builders like Enigma Virtual Box  They both contain an embedded version of Chrome which is unnecessary for server apps  if you want to package a server app these are the best options   node-compiler  Ahead-of-time  AOT  Compiler designed for Node js  that just works  Nexe  create a single executable out of your node js apps  In this category  I believe node-compiler is better which supports dynamic require and native node modules  It s very easy to use and the output starts at 25MB  You can read a full comparison with other solutions in Node Compiler page  I didn t read much about Nexe  but for now  it seems Node Compiler doesn t compile the js file to binary format using V8 snapshot feature but it s planned for version 2  It s also going to have built-in installer builder

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There are a lot of good answers here  but they re not all as straightforward as JXcore   Once you have JXcore installed on windows  all you have to do is run   jx package app js  myAppName  -native   This will produce a  exe file that you can distribute and can be executed without any external dependencies whatsoever  you don t even need JXcore nor Node js on the system    Here s the documentation on that functionality  http   jxcore com packaging-code-protection  cat-74  Edit 2018  That project is now dead but it is still hosted here  https   github com jxcore jxcore-release  thanks  Elmue

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Try nexe which creates a single executable out of your node js apps  https   github com nexe nexe

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There may be many other options but to my knowledge  there is one project in active development on GitHub https   github com zeit pkg  You can play with it  One more at https   github com nexe nexe but not in active development

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The best tool I know is  NodeJS tool  zeit pkg  It is very easy to use  much more than Nexe  just as an example   you can just install in globally  npm install -g pkg  to create executables for macOS  Linux and Windows   pkg exampleApp js  I had a bit of complicated code which used NodeJS socket server  I tried different applications  none of them created it properly  except zeit pkg

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Since this question has been answered  another solution has been launched   https   github com appjs appjs  At the time of this writing  this is the end-all solution for packaging node js apps through a stripped down chromium package compiled into an executable   Edit  AppJS is no longer active  but itself suggests a fork called deskshell    https   github com sihorton appjs-deskshell

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The solution I ve used is Roger Wang s node-webkit   This is a fantastic way to package nodejs apps and distribute them  it even gives you the option to  bundle  the whole app as a single executable  It supports windows  mac and linux    Here are some docs on the various options for deploying node-webkit apps  but in a nutshell  you do the following    Zip up all your files  with a package json in the root Change the extension from  zip to  nw copy  b nw exe app nw app exe   Just as an added note - I ve shipped several production box install cd applications using this  and it s worked great  Same app runs on windows  mac  linux and over the web   Update  the project name has changed to  nw js  and is properly located here  nw js

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