Node.js PyPI distribution

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform, back-end JavaScript runtime environment that runs on the V8 engine and executes JavaScript code outside a web browser.

The nodejs-bin Python package redistributes Node.js so that it can be used as a dependency of Python projects. With nodejs-bin you can call nodejs, npm and npx from both the command line and a Python API.

Note: this is an unofficial Node.js distribution. However, it does use only official bits distributed by the official NodeJS maintainers from one of the following sources:

• NodeJS official releases: https://nodejs.org/en/download/releases/
• NodeJS "unofficial" builds: https://github.com/nodejs/unofficial-builds/

This is intended for use within Python virtual environments and containers, it should probably not be used for global installation.

This PyPI distribution is provided by https://github.com/samwillis/nodejs-pypi.

Install

To install:

pip install nodejs-bin

By default the command line node, npm and npx commands are not installed to prevent collisions with already installed Node.js versions. To install them:

pip install 'nodejs-bin[cmd]'

You can specify the Node.js version to install with:

pip install nodejs-bin==<version>

# Example:
pip install nodejs-bin==16.15.1

Command Line Usage

To run Node.js from the command line, use:

python -m nodejs

npm and npx are also available as nodejs.npm and nodejs.npx:

python -m nodejs.npm
python -m nodejs.npx

If you installed the optional command line commands with pip install 'nodejs-bin[cmd]' (see above), you can use them directly from the command line as you would normally with Node.js:

node
npm
npx

Python API Usage

node-bin has a simple Python API that wraps the Node.js command line with the Python subprocess.

For node, npm and npx there are .call(), .run() and .Popen() methods that match the equivalent subprocess methods.

To run Node.js from a Python program and return the exit code:

from nodejs import node, npm, npx

# Run Node.js and return the exit code.
node.call(['script.js', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

# Run npm and return the exit code.
npm.call(['command', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

# Run npx and return the exit code.
npx.call(['command', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

The call(args, **kwargs) functions wrap subprocess.call(), passes though all kwargs and returns the exit code of the process.

To run Node.js from a Python program and return a CompletedProcess object:

from nodejs import node, npm, npx

# Run Node.js and return the exit code.
node.run(['script.js', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

# Run npm and return the exit code.
npm.run(['command', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

# Run npx and return the exit code.
npx.run(['command', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

The run(args, **kwargs) functions wrap subprocess.run(), passes though all kwargs and returns a CompletedProcess.

Additionally, to start a Node.js process and return a subprocess.Popen object, you can use the Popen(args, **kwargs) functions:

from nodejs import node, npm, npx

# Start Node.js and return the Popen object.
node_process = node.Popen(['script.js', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

# Start npm and return the Popen object.
npm_process = npm.Popen(['command', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

# Start npx and return the Popen object.
npx_process = npx.Popen(['command', 'arg1', ...], **kwargs)

The Popen(args, **kwargs) functions wrap subprocess.Popen(), passes though all kwargs and returns a Popen object.

The nodejs.node api is also available as nodejs.run and nodejs.call and nodejs.Popen.

Finally, there are a number of convenient attributes on the nodejs module:

• nodejs.node_version: the version of Node.js that is installed.
• nodejs.path: the path to the Node.js executable.

Versions

nodejs-bin offers Node.js Current and LTS (long-term support) versions. See the Node.js Documentation for more information.

The full list of versions is available on PyPI is here: https://pypi.org/project/nodejs-bin/#history

License

The Node.js license.