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doc: add documentation about node_mksnapshot and mkcodecache
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PR-URL: #30773
Reviewed-By: Anna Henningsen <[email protected]>
Reviewed-By: Gireesh Punathil <[email protected]>
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joyeecheung authored and targos committed Dec 9, 2019
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38 changes: 38 additions & 0 deletions tools/code_cache/README.md
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# 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 embeded into the Node.js executable. When a Node.js
JavaScript native module is `require`d 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::native_module::has_code_cache`
- `node::native_module::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).
42 changes: 42 additions & 0 deletions tools/snapshot/README.md
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# Node.js startup snapshot builder

This is the V8 startup snapshot builder of Node.js. Not to be confused with
V8's own snapshot builder, which builds a snapshot containing JavaScript
builtins, this builds a snapshot containing Node.js builtins that can be
deserialized on top of V8's own startup snapshot. When Node.js is launched,
instead of executing code to bootstrap, it can deserialize the context from
an embedded snapshot, which readily contains the result of the bootstrap, so
that Node.js can start up faster.

Currently only the main context of the main Node.js instance supports snapshot
deserialization, and the snapshot does not yet cover the entire bootstrap
process. Work is being done to expand the support.

## How it's built and used

The snapshot builder is built with the `node_mksnapshot` target in `node.gyp`
when `node_use_node_snapshot` is set to true, which is currently done by
default.

In the default build of the Node.js executable, to embed a V8 startup snapshot
into the Node.js executable, `libnode` is first built with these unresolved
symbols:

- `node::NodeMainInstance::GetEmbeddedSnapshotBlob`
- `node::NodeMainInstance::GetIsolateDataIndexes`

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

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

For debugging, Node.js can be built without Node.js's own snapshot if
`--without-node-snapshot` is passed to `configure`. A Node.js executable
with Node.js snapshot embedded can also be launched without deserializing
from it if the command line argument `--no-node-snapshot` is passed.

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