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I'm a Node.JS beginner, so please forgive me if my question is too naive or too simple:) I made myself a simple node.js app: index.js which requires my_module.js. The second one just displays console.log("Hello").

Now I would like to pack it somehow into single exe file (I work on Windows) to be able to run it on another machine without the need of having node installed. Is that even possible?

Nuray Altin
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Larry
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    Thanks James. Although your link did not help directly, but from there I clicked some other link, then another one and I arrived into http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7557364/packing-node-js-scripts-node-exe-into-a-single-executable. The solution with JXcore works best for me! – Larry Apr 13 '15 at 12:46

2 Answers2

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The core problem was already answered from here I will provide some specifics on Windows in addition to answer.

basically;

  1. Download and Install JXcore
  2. Go to your apps folder
  3. Run 'jx package index.js myapp -native'

Be careful with the executable you have. If you are on 64 bit Windows, you will end up having a 64 bit executable of your application. Perhaps almost all the Windows installations nowadays are 64 bits and this won't be a big deal. However you can also have a 32 bit version by re-packaging the app on 32 bit Windows. AFAIK the upcoming update to JXcore will be handling this confusion.

Community
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Nuray Altin
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  • Thanks. I wasn't aware of 64 bit version of my exe app. Since this info is related to JXcore solution that I've found, I mark it as accepted. I'm sorry for other people like @Alex. I wish I could mark more accepted then one :) – Larry Apr 13 '15 at 21:05
  • Do you know how to include NPMs? I am now able to package my app, but the NPM my "app.js" file use is in another directory (../node-moduels/) – NachoDawg Oct 05 '16 at 12:14
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I wrote a blog post on this here:

http://www.alexjamesbrown.com/blog/development/create-a-standalone-exe-to-run-a-node-js-application/

In case my blog should ever disappear:

Download Advanced BAT to EXE converter
http://www.battoexeconverter.com/

Download Node.exe from Joyent (I'm using 0.8.2 since this post is 5+ years old) http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.8.2/node.exe

Now we’re ready to bundle the node.js executable and our js files into a single exe file.

Create a BAT file

CD %MYFILES%/
node test.js

%MYFILES% is the variable given to the location of embedded files (more on that in a sec)

For the purposes of this demo, I’ve created a very simple test.js file, that looks like this:

for(i=1;i<=10000;i++) { 
 console.log(i);
}

Now, from the File menu of BAT to EXE converter, select Build Exe (CTRL+ B)
Enter a filename for the final exe file.

Next, the EXE options pane will be displayed.

enter image description here

Click the Embed Files tab, and select both your node.exe and test.js files.

Set any other options you feel you’ll need here.

Then, simply click Build EXE.

Your executable will be bundled and in the location you chose to save it.
Run it, and you’ll have 1-10000 outputted into the console.

Alex
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  • ... i don't like leaving a link as an answer - I'll extract the important parts of it into this answer later; my own blog is blocked on this corporate firewall! – Alex Apr 13 '15 at 12:44
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    Thanks Alex, but I think I got the solution with JXcore. Please see my comment under my question. Your solution is also nice, but a little bit too complicated for me. Plus I don't need to embed node.exe anymore, since JXcore already has got it. Thanks anyway! – Larry Apr 13 '15 at 12:52
  • downvoted - links can stale and any answer is supposed to be self-sufficient to some extent. – shabunc Aug 19 '20 at 10:06