1# Maintaining the Build files 2 3This document explains how to maintain the build files in the codebase. 4 5## Overview 6 7On how to build the Node.js core, see [Building Node.js](../../BUILDING.md). 8 9There are three main build files that may be directly run when building Node.js: 10 11- `configure`: A Python 2 script that detects system capabilities and runs 12 [GYP][]. It generates `config.gypi` which includes parameters used by GYP to 13 create platform-dependent build files. Its output is usually in one of these 14 formats: Makefile, MSbuild, ninja, or XCode project files (the main 15 Makefile mentioned below is maintained separately by humans). For a detailed 16 guide on this script, see [configure](#configure). 17- `vcbuild.bat`: A Windows Batch Script that locates build tools, provides a 18 subset of the targets available in the [Makefile](#makefile), and a few 19 targets of its own. For a detailed guide on this script, see 20 [vcbuild.bat](#vcbuildbat). 21- `Makefile`: A Makefile that can be run with GNU Make. It provides a set of 22 targets that build and test the Node.js binary, produce releases and 23 documentation, and interact with the CI to run benchmarks or tests. For a 24 detailed guide on this file, see [Makefile](#makefile). 25 26On Windows `vcbuild.bat` runs [configure](#configure) before building the 27Node.js binary, on other systems `configure` must be run manually before running 28`make` on the `Makefile`. 29 30## vcbuild.bat 31 32To see the help text, run `.\vcbuild help`. Update this file when you need to 33update the build and testing process on Windows. 34 35## configure 36 37To see the help text, run `python configure --help`. Update this file when you 38need to update the configuration process. 39 40## Makefile 41 42To see the help text, run `make help`. This file is not generated, it is 43maintained by humans. Note that this is not usually run on Windows, where 44[vcbuild.bat](#vcbuildbat) is used instead. 45 46### Options 47 48- `-j <n>`: number of threads used to build the binary. Note that on the non-ci 49 targets, the parallel tests will take up all the available cores, regardless 50 of this option. 51 52[GYP]: https://gyp.gsrc.io/docs/UserDocumentation.md 53