compile-to-an-executable.md

Compile To An Executable

Category: Nodejs

You can cross-compile a Nodejs application on Linux, Windows, and macOS to an executable using pkg.

Applications compiled using pkg do not require Node to be installed on a target system in order to run.

Install globally using yarn:

yarn global add pkg

Compile an application with an entrypoint of src/server.js to a binary file called my-node-app using the Node 16 runtime on macOS x64 architecture:

pkg src/server.js --targets node16-macos-x64 --output my-node-app

Compile an application with an entrypoint of src/app.js to a binary file called my-node-app using the Node 14 runtime on Linux arm v7 architecture (for example, to run on a Raspberry Pi):

pkg src/app.js --targets node14-linux-armv7 --output my-node-app

Note: Some applications may require advanced configuration for loading assets or writing to log files. See Pkg from Vercel for more details on configuration options.