node.js on Windows

By Dan Baker, published 2010-09-09

I finally broke down, and setup node.js on my Windows XP box. The following is what I recommend doing: Walk through the page at github. My comments on that page are as follows:

download cygwin

Visit the site cygwin
Click on the link in the top/right corner labeled "Install or Update cygwin now", and download the program called setup

install cygwin on your Windows box

run setup.exe (Wizard will show)
Cygwin Net Release Setup Program (Next)
Choose A Download Source (Install from Internet, Next)
Select Root Install Directory ("C:\dev\cygwin" is where I put it, Next)
Select Local Package Directory ("C:\dev\cygwinPackages" is where I selected, Next)
Select Your Internet Connection (Direct Connection is what I used, Next)
Choose A Download Site (I selected one near the top that sounded familiar (xmission), Next)
Wait for things to download...
check several options (see the list on the github page)

Expand "Devel" (long list expanded)
devel -> gcc-g++
devel -> git
devel -> make
devel -> openssl-devel
devel -> pkg-config
devel -> zlib-devel
Expand "python"
python -> python

Finally, the install starts. This will take a long time (I left and came back later)

run cygwin (Start -> Cygwin -> Cygwin Bash Shell) or the "Cygwin" shortcut installed on the desktop
clone node.js repository. Visit nodejs change log to read about recent versions

$ cd ~
$ git clone git://github.com/ry/node.git
$ cd node
$ git fetch --all
$ git tag
$ git checkout v0.2.0

build node.js

$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install

setup DNS

$ vim /etc/resolv.conf
alternate method of editing files:

From windows explorer, go find the folder you installed cygwin to. Right-click on the cygwin short cut on the desktop, "properties" and click "Find Target..."
There should be several folders here, like: bin, dev, etc, home, lib ...
The "home" folder will have a sub-folder with your named account. Under that folder is a folder called "node", which contained the files you checked out from git
The "etc" folder is where we want to create a file called "resolv.conf"
Use notepad, and paste in the following
Restart cygwin:
$ exit
Run cygwin again

Create a node.js application (http server app)

Visit nodejs
Copy the entire sample text:

 var http = require("http"); http.createServer(function (req, res) { res.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}); res.end("Hello World\n"); }).listen(8124, "127.0.0.1"); console.log("Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8124/");

Paste it into .../cygwin/home/[USER]/node/example.js

Start this node.js app

$ node example.js

Use the running node.js app in a browser

Open browser to: 127.0.0.1:8124
See "Hello World" in your browser!

Stop node.js by pressed Ctrl-C

After using node in cygwin for awhile, I realized I needed to enhance my cygwin, so I did the following:

$ exit
Re-run Setup.exe

run setup.exe
Cygwin Net Release Setup Program (Next)
Choose A Download Source (Install from Internet, Next)
Select Root Install Directory (leave where you installed last time, Next)
Select Local Package Directory (leave from previous install, Next)
Select Your Internet Connection (Direct Connection, Next)
Choose A Download Site (same as last time, Next)
Wait for things to download...
Select Pages (This is the MAIN page)
In the "Search" box, type "curl"
Expand "web", and next to "curl: Multi-protocol file transfer command-line tool" click on "Skip". It will change to a release number (7.20.1-1 in my case) with "Bin?" checked and "Src?" not checked
Other things I installed: vim, curl,

Run cygwin again
Installing "NPM" (If you want to)

says to do the following: curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sudo sh (this won't work in cygwin)
DO: curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh

UtahJS

node.js on Windows

About the Author

About UtahJS.com