FreeBSD build

[louwers]

Occasionally people ask about FreeBSD.

It works, you just have to add

#ifdef __FreeBSD__
#define OS "freebsd"
#define IS_FREEBSD
#endif

to build.c

Created a release here: https://github.com/louwers/uws-freebsd/releases

[louwers]

I am now publishing builds here: https://github.com/louwers/uws-freebsd/releases

Will automatically update when uWebsockets.js makes a new release.

[louwers]

I have now set up CI with weekly cron, so should stay up to date in the future.

[uNetworkingAB]

I think we used to have FreeBSD support at some time but it stopped working after some changes and was dropped because you can't even download Node.js for FreeBSD from nodejs.org - only Windows, macOS and Linux (and some AIX thing, wtf?). So the problem is not so much about compiling it, it's that once it is added it needs fixing when it breaks and the extra time sink is not worth it.

Very clean and legally correct fork you did, anyways. It's not entirely impossible to add FreeBSD here at some point but very unlikely (GitHub Actions don't even have a FreeBSD runner).

It's too niche

[louwers]

Yes makes total sense not to support it officially.

Node.js actually does run their CI on FreeBSD too, but since it is not a Tier-1 platform, they don't distribute builds for it.

GitHub Actions don't even have a FreeBSD runner

Yes that is problematic and unlikely to change soon (actions/runner#385). I am using Cirrus CI for builds instead.

[louwers]

I am using this postinstall script to copy my FreeBSD build to the directory where uWebSocket.js looks for binaries. Just add it to package.json

  "scripts": {
    "postinstall": "node scripts/postinstall.ts"
  },

Feel free to use it, available under CC0. Probably too simple to distribute as a library.

import { findPackageJSON } from "node:module";
import { createWriteStream, readFileSync } from "node:fs";
import { join, dirname } from "node:path";
import { platform, arch } from "node:os";
import { Readable } from "node:stream";
import { pipeline } from "node:stream/promises";
import { ReadableStream as WebReadableStream } from "node:stream/web";

async function downloadFreeBSDBinary(): Promise<void> {
  if (platform() !== "freebsd") {
    console.log("Not running on FreeBSD, skipping binary download");
    return;
  }

  if (arch() !== "x64") {
    console.error(
      `Unsupported architecture: ${arch()}. Only x64 is supported.`,
    );
    process.exit(1);
  }

  try {
    const abiVersion = process.versions.modules;

    const uwsPackageJson = findPackageJSON("uWebSockets.js", import.meta.url);

    if (!uwsPackageJson) {
      console.error("Could not find uWebSockets.js package.json");
      process.exit(1);
    }

    const packageContent = readFileSync(uwsPackageJson, "utf-8");
    const packageData = JSON.parse(packageContent);
    const version = packageData.version;

    console.log(`Found uWebSockets.js version: ${version}`);

    // Download URL for FreeBSD binary
    const downloadUrl = `https://github.com/louwers/uws-freebsd/releases/download/v${version}/uws_freebsd_x64_${abiVersion}.node`;
    const packageDir = dirname(uwsPackageJson);
    const outputPath = join(packageDir, `uws_freebsd_x64_${abiVersion}.node`);

    console.log(`Downloading FreeBSD binary from: ${downloadUrl}`);
    console.log(`Saving to: ${outputPath}`);

    const response = await fetch(downloadUrl);
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(
        `Failed to download: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`,
      );
    }
    if (!response.body) {
      throw new Error("Download failed: empty response body");
    }

    const readable = Readable.fromWeb(
      response.body as unknown as WebReadableStream<Uint8Array>,
    );
    await pipeline(readable, createWriteStream(outputPath));

    console.log("Successfully downloaded FreeBSD binary for uWebSockets.js");
  } catch (error) {
    const message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error);
    console.error("Error downloading FreeBSD binary:", message);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

try {
  await downloadFreeBSDBinary();
} catch (error) {
  const message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error);
  console.error("Unexpected error:", message);
  process.exit(1);
}