gonode

gonode

gonode is a tool to help you write Go code that easily translates to Node.js addons and bindings, complete with TypeScript definitions.

How it works

Node.js addons are written in C++ and are compiled into a shared library.
Go has support for C FFI (Foreign Function Interface) which allows you to call C++ functions from Go, or in this case export Go functions to C++.

go build is used to compile the Go code into a shared library, which then needs some glue code to be able to call these functions from Node.js (i.e., initialize the module, export the functions, etc.).

The steps are as follows:

• Export functions from Go using Go's //export comment and add a go generate directive which calls gonode:

    package calculator
  
    //go:generate gonode -dir .
  
    //export Sum
    func Sum(x, y float64) float64 {
    	return x + y
    }
  

• Compile the Go code into a shared library using go build:

  $ go build -buildmode c-archive -o build/calculator.a calculator.go
  

• Generate the glue code using gonode:

  go generate ./...
  

• In your Node.js project, generate bindings using node-gyp and import the TypeScript definitions that gonode generated:

  node-gyp configure
  node-gyp build
  

  import { sum } from "../build/Release/calculator";
  
  console.log(sum(1, 2));
  

See the examples directory for a complete example.

Usage

TODO