node/tools/code_cache
Joyee Cheung fbc52e5729
src: disambiguate terms used to refer to builtins and addons
The term "native module" dates back to some of the oldest code
in the code base. Within the context of Node.js core it usually
refers to modules that are native to Node.js (e.g. fs, http),
but it can cause confusion for people who don't work on this
part of the code base, as "native module" can also refer to
native addons - which is even the case in some of the API
docs and error messages.

This patch tries to make the usage of these terms more consistent.
Now within the context of Node.js core:

- JavaScript scripts that are built-in to Node.js are now referred
  to as "built-in(s)". If they are available as modules,
  they can also be referred to as "built-in module(s)".
- Dynamically-linked shared objects that are loaded into
  the Node.js processes are referred to as "addons".

We will try to avoid using the term "native modules" because it could
be ambiguous.

Changes in this patch:

File names:
- node_native_module.h -> node_builtins.h,
- node_native_module.cc -> node_builtins.cc

C++ binding names:
- `native_module` -> `builtins`

`node::Environment`:
- `native_modules_without_cache` -> `builtins_without_cache`
- `native_modules_with_cache` -> `builtins_with_cache`
- `native_modules_in_snapshot` -> `builtins_in_cache`
- `native_module_require` -> `builtin_module_require`

`node::EnvSerializeInfo`:
- `native_modules` -> `builtins

`node::native_module::NativeModuleLoader`:
- `native_module` namespace -> `builtins` namespace
- `NativeModuleLoader` -> `BuiltinLoader`
- `NativeModuleRecordMap` -> `BuiltinSourceMap`
- `NativeModuleCacheMap` -> `BuiltinCodeCacheMap`
- `ModuleIds` -> `BuiltinIds`
- `ModuleCategories` -> `BuiltinCategories`
- `LoadBuiltinModuleSource` -> `LoadBuiltinSource`

`loader.js`:
- `NativeModule` -> `BuiltinModule` (the `NativeModule` name used in
  `process.moduleLoadList` is kept for compatibility)

And other clarifications in the documentation and comments.

PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/44135
Backport-PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/45663
Fixes: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/44036
Reviewed-By: Jacob Smith <jacob@frende.me>
Reviewed-By: Matteo Collina <matteo.collina@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Michael Dawson <midawson@redhat.com>
Reviewed-By: Richard Lau <rlau@redhat.com>
Reviewed-By: Jiawen Geng <technicalcute@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Chengzhong Wu <legendecas@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Mohammed Keyvanzadeh <mohammadkeyvanzade94@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Tobias Nießen <tniessen@tnie.de>
Reviewed-By: Jan Krems <jan.krems@gmail.com>
2022-12-08 09:55:24 -05:00
..
cache_builder.cc src: disambiguate terms used to refer to builtins and addons 2022-12-08 09:55:24 -05:00
cache_builder.h src: disambiguate terms used to refer to builtins and addons 2022-12-08 09:55:24 -05:00
mkcodecache.cc src: disambiguate terms used to refer to builtins and addons 2022-12-08 09:55:24 -05:00
README.md src: disambiguate terms used to refer to builtins and addons 2022-12-08 09:55:24 -05:00

Node.js code cache builder

This is the V8 code cache builder of Node.js. It pre-compiles all the JavaScript native modules of Node.js and serializes the code cache (including the bytecodes) that will be embedded into the Node.js executable. When a Node.js JavaScript native module is required at runtime, Node.js can deserialize from the code cache instead of parsing the source code and generating the bytecode for it before execution, which should reduce the load time of these JavaScript native modules.

How it's built and used

The code cache builder is built with the mkcodecache target in node.gyp when node_use_node_code_cache is set to true, which is currently done by default.

In the default build of the Node.js executable, to embed the V8 code cache of the native modules into the Node.js executable, libnode is first built with these unresolved symbols:

  • node::builtins::has_code_cache
  • node::builtins::NativeModuleEnv::InitializeCodeCache

Then the mkcodecache executable is built with C++ files in this directory, as well as src/node_code_cache_stub.cc which defines the unresolved symbols.

mkcodecache is run to generate a C++ file <(SHARED_INTERMEDIATE_DIR)/node_code_cache.cc that is similar to src/node_code_cache_stub.cc in structure, but contains the code cache data written as static char array literals. Then libnode is built with node_code_cache.cc to produce the final Node.js executable with the code cache data embedded.

For debugging, Node.js can be built without code cache if --without-node-code-cache is passed to configure. Note that even if the code cache is not pre-compiled and embedded into the Node.js executable, the internal infrastructure is still used to share code cache between the main thread and worker threads (if there is any).