Making a binary from Node.js scripts

build.js

const { spawn } = require('child_process');
const path = require('path');
const fs = require('fs');

const ROOT_DIR = __dirname;
const OUTPUT_DIR = path.join(__dirname, 'bin'); // where the binary should end up
const OUTPUT = path.join(OUTPUT_DIR, 'my_program'); // name of the binary
const BUILD_DIR = path.join(__dirname, 'build'); // location for temporary build files
const MAIN = 'your-code.js'; // the entrypoint to your code
const INCLUDE = [
	process.execPath, // copy node binary
	'package.json',
	'node_modules',
	MAIN,
	'something.jpg', // files/directories you wish to include
	'something-else.js',
	'some-directory'
]; 
const PAYLOAD_TAR_GZ = path.join(ROOT_DIR, 'payload.tar.gz');
const SH_TEMPLATE = [
	'#!/bin/sh',
	'export TMPDIR=`mktemp -d /tmp/nodescript.XXXXXX`', // create temp install dir
	'function __cleanup () {',
		'rm -rf $TMPDIR', // when finish, remove temp install dir
	'}',
	'trap __cleanup EXIT',
	'ARCHIVE=`awk \'/^__ARCHIVE_BELOW__/ {print NR + 1; exit 0; }\' $0`',// get line of archive start
	'tail -n+$ARCHIVE $0 | tar xz -C $TMPDIR', // extact archive to temp install dir
	//'cd $TMPDIR', // go to temp install dir
	`$TMPDIR/node $TMPDIR/${MAIN}`, // run the program
	'__cleanup', // when finish, remove temp install dir
	'exit 0', // exit before getting to the included file
	'__ARCHIVE_BELOW__' // insert marker
].join('\n');

const exec = async (cmd, args, cwd = ROOT_DIR) => new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
	console.log(['>', cmd, ...args].join(' '));
	const p = spawn(cmd, [...args], { stdio: 'inherit', cwd });
	p.on('error', e => reject(e));
	p.on('close', code => resolve(code));
});

const build = async () => {
	await exec('rm', ['-rf', BUILD_DIR]);
	await exec('mkdir', ['-p', BUILD_DIR]); 
	await exec('mkdir', ['-p', OUTPUT_DIR]);
	await exec('cp', ['-r', ...INCLUDE, BUILD_DIR]); // copy all needed files to the build directory
	await exec('npm', ['prune', '--production'], BUILD_DIR); // remove unneeded modules (e.g. devDependencies)
	await exec('tar', [ // create the tar.gz which will be appended to the binary
		'-c', // create
		'-z', // gzip
		'-C', BUILD_DIR, // working directory
		'-f', PAYLOAD_TAR_GZ, // output
		'--overwrite', // don't ask before overwrite
		'.' // contents
	]);
	await new Promise(resolve => { // write the executable
		const ws = fs.createWriteStream(OUTPUT, { encoding: 'ascii' });
		ws.write(SH_TEMPLATE + '\n');
		fs.createReadStream(PAYLOAD_TAR_GZ).pipe(ws);
		ws.on('close', resolve);
	});
	await exec('chmod', ['+x', OUTPUT]); // make it executable
	await exec('rm', ['-rf', BUILD_DIR, PAYLOAD_TAR_GZ]); // remove build files
};

build();