# Maintaining the build files

This document explains how to maintain the build files in the codebase.

## Overview

On how to build the Node.js core, see [Building Node.js](../../../BUILDING.md).

There are three main build files that may be directly run when building Node.js:

* `configure`: A Python script that detects system capabilities and runs
  [GYP][]. It generates `config.gypi` which includes parameters used by GYP to
  create platform-dependent build files. Its output is usually in one of these
  formats: Makefile, MSbuild, ninja, or XCode project files (the main
  Makefile mentioned below is maintained separately by humans). For a detailed
  guide on this script, see [configure][].
* `vcbuild.bat`: A Windows Batch Script that locates build tools, provides a
  subset of the targets available in the [Makefile][], and a few
  targets of its own. For a detailed guide on this script, see
  [vcbuild.bat](#vcbuildbat).
* `Makefile`: A Makefile that can be run with GNU Make. It provides a set of
  targets that build and test the Node.js binary, produce releases and
  documentation, and interact with the CI to run benchmarks or tests. For a
  detailed guide on this file, see [Makefile][].

On Windows `vcbuild.bat` runs [configure][] before building the
Node.js binary, on other systems `configure` must be run manually before running
`make` on the `Makefile`.

## vcbuild.bat

To see the help text, run `.\vcbuild help`. Update this file when you need to
update the build and testing process on Windows.

## configure

The `configure` script recognizes many CLI flags for special build formulas.
Many are not represented by `vcbuild` shortcuts, and need to be passed
either by:

* Calling `python configure --XXX --YYY=PPPP` directly, followed by `vcbuild
  noprojgen`
* Setting `set config_flags=--XXX --YYY=PPPP` before calling `vcbuild`

To see the help text, run `python configure --help`. Update this file when you
need to update the configuration process.

## Makefile

To see the help text, run `make help`. This file is not generated, it is
maintained by humans. This is not usually run on Windows, where
[vcbuild.bat](#vcbuildbat) is used instead.

### Options

* `-j <n>`: number of threads used to build the binary. On the non-CI
  targets, the parallel tests will take up all the available cores, regardless
  of this option.

[GYP]: https://gyp.gsrc.io/docs/UserDocumentation.md
[Makefile]: #makefile
[configure]: #configure