Cross compile armv7 (for RPI)

[ralphtheninja]

Lets use this branch to make some cross compiled binaries.

• Switch to ahdinosaur/prebuildify#master (using specific commit, in case master moves)
• Switch to vweevers/node-gyp-build#libc-and-arm-flavors
• Pull in prebuildify-cross
• Invoke prebuildify-cross for armv7 (raspberry pi)
• Run it on Travis

[ralphtheninja]

@vweevers Any idea what's going on here? https://ci.appveyor.com/project/juliangruber/leveldown/builds/21741182/job/w1iajci5llbptif0

[vweevers]

Not sure but I do know we gotta do #578 (comment).

[vweevers]

Any idea what's going on here? https://ci.appveyor.com/project/juliangruber/leveldown/builds/21741182/job/w1iajci5llbptif0

The problem is the custom platform, which breaks this line:
https://github.com/ahdinosaur/prebuildify/blob/2e6da5d9f875c8d538806808924480607a5858da/index.js#L138

[ralphtheninja]

The problem is the custom platform, which breaks this line:
https://github.com/ahdinosaur/prebuildify/blob/2e6da5d9f875c8d538806808924480607a5858da/index.js#L138

Hmm ok, so opts.platform is set to something else than 'win32' and we try to run node-gyp instead of node-gyp.cmd?

[vweevers]

Yea. I don't understand what sets the custom platform though. Maybe AppVeyor defines PLATFORM? 🤔

[ralphtheninja]

So it seems AppVeyor defines PLATFORM as x64 which is used by MSVS. Trying PREBUILD_PLATFORM instead for now.

[ralphtheninja]

@vweevers I'm wondering if we should just squeeze in N number of npm run prebuildify-cross-XYZ in here:

leveldown/.travis.yml

Lines 18 to 20 in 1c90e8f

	- ARCHIVE_NAME="${TRAVIS_TAG:-latest}-$TRAVIS_OS_NAME-`uname -m`.tar"
	- npm run prebuild
	- tar --create --verbose --file="$ARCHIVE_NAME" --directory "$TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR/prebuilds" .

Since we do a single upload of $ARCHIVE_NAME it should work? Should give $ARCHIVE_NAME a better name though.

EDIT: We could just scratch the uname -m thingie.

[ralphtheninja]

Hmm scratch my last comment. We should only try cross compiling on linux, so might need to check os name etc.

[ralphtheninja]

Seems like Travis deploy mechanism doesn't like using an external script. I assume it's because $ARCHIVE_NAME is only defined in the script. Annoying.

[ralphtheninja]

[ralphtheninja]

So, given some tweaks needed here and there (releasing prebuildify, prebuildify-cross) this is basically working now.

[staltz]

By the way, even though ARM is being nicely targeted, what about node versions? Node.js on mobile uses Node 8.6.0

[ralphtheninja]

By the way, even though ARM is being nicely targeted, what about node versions? Node.js on mobile uses Node 8.6.0

@staltz leveldown is now based on N-api and is future compatible with all node versions starting from v8.6.0. This means we no longer need to target different node versions.

[vweevers]

@ralphtheninja we can create a proper matrix after this PR (with one job for normal linux, another for cross builds).

[ralphtheninja]

@ralphtheninja we can create a proper matrix after this PR (with one job for normal linux, another for cross builds).

Sounds good. Up for it? 😄

[ralphtheninja]

@vweevers Once we have the matrix up and running, maybe we should focus on differentiating between different arm versions? E.g. armv7 and armv8 (arm64 arch). Or maybe arm64 will work out of the box, given the prebuilds/${platform}-${arch} folder structure?

[vweevers]

Once we have the matrix up and running, maybe we should focus on differentiating between different arm versions? E.g. armv7 and armv8 (arm64 arch).

Yeah. We need 1) a PR to prebuildify to add the tagging 2) add tag args here 3) node-gyp-build.

[vweevers]

Remove - SET

[vweevers]

Or maybe arm64 will work out of the box, given the prebuilds/${platform}-${arch} folder structure?

That's a good point 😄 It will work at least until we add other armv versions (and maybe that never happens).

[ralphtheninja]