How to write cross-platform Node.js code.

Why you should care: according to the 2018 Node.js user survey, 24% of Node.js developers use Windows locally and 41% use Mac. In production 85% use Linux and 1% use BSD.

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Please reach out if you're looking for a Node.js API or CLI engineer (11 years of experience). Most recently I have been Netlify Build's and Netlify Plugins' technical lead for 2.5 years. I am available for full-time remote positions.

Table of contents

Summary

🤖 Development environment

• Node setup
• Core utilities
• Testing

📝 File encoding

• Character encoding
• Newlines
• EOF and BOM

📂 Filesystem

• Directory locations
• File paths
• Filenames
• Symlinks
• File metadata

💻 Terminal

• Shell
• File execution
• Package binaries
• Environment variables

🔒 Security

• Permissions
• Users

📡 Networking / IPC

• Networking
• Processes
• Signals
• Errors

🎛️ System

• OS identification
• System configuration
• Hardware
• Time

See also

• cross-platform-terminal-characters: All the characters that work on most terminals
• https://github.com/bcoe/awesome-cross-platform-nodejs
• https://github.com/Microsoft/nodejs-guidelines
• https://shapeshed.com/writing-cross-platform-node/

Support

For any question, don't hesitate to submit an issue on GitHub.

Everyone is welcome regardless of personal background. We enforce a Code of conduct in order to promote a positive and inclusive environment.

Contributing

This project was made with ❤️. The simplest way to give back is by starring and sharing it online.

If the documentation is unclear or has a typo, please click on the page's Edit button (pencil icon) and suggest a correction.

If you would like to help us fix an error or add more information, please check our guidelines. Pull requests are welcome!

Thanks go to these wonderful people:

ehmicky 💻 🎨 🤔 📖	thatalextaylor 🤔 📖	Ben Noordhuis 🤔 📖	Steve Lee 🤔 📢	Michael J. Ryan 🤔	Fabio Spampinato 🤔	AyrA 🤔
Felix Becker 📖 🤔	Nicola Dal Maso 🤔