[libnode] How to build nodejs/libnode to a statically linkable binary?

[alshdavid]

Hi all, I am trying to build libnode such that it produces a statically linkable library I can embed within my application.

It's okay for system dependencies that the Nodejs CLI links dynamically to remain dynamic (like openssl) - I don't need them to be statically included because I am essentially recreating the Nodejs CLI.

I want to produce libraries for macos-x64 macos-arm64 linux-x64 linux-arm64 and windows-x64.

I have tried several approaches without success, namely:

./configure --shared --fully-static --enable-static
make -j16

# Patch node.gyp to build in static
sed -i "s/'type': 'executable',/'type': 'static_library',/g" ./node.gyp 

./configure
make -j16

And combinations of the flags/patches

# Patch node.gyp to build in static
sed -i "s/'type': 'executable',/'type': 'static_library',/g" ./node.gyp 

./configure  --shared --fully-static --enable-static
make -j16

I have tried this on Fedora 41 without success so I also tried running these commands within docker containers:

COMMANDS=$(cat <<-END
set -e

cd /workdir

apt update -y
apt upgrade -y
apt install -y software-properties-common wget curl jq git build-essential zsh make cmake jq clang
git config --global safe.directory '*'

git clone "https://github.com./nodejs/node" --branch v23.11.0 --depth=1 ./node
cd ./node

./configure --shared --fully-static --enable-static
make -j16

END )

# Have tried ubuntu:22.04 ubuntu:24.04 debian:12, fedora:41
sudo docker run --rm -it -v $PWD/workdir:/workdir debian:12 /bin/bash -c "echo -e \"$COMMANDS\" | /bin/bash -s"

Once I figure it out I will repeat these steps on MacOS and Windows.

References

• StackOverflow: How to build nodejs as a shared library from source code
• GitHub: metacall/libnode - Prebuilt C bindings for libnode
• Github: alshdavid/edon - Rust crate with libnode bindings