binary-downloader

This module downloads remote binaries according to requirements for a given
version of Node.js.

It also simplifies requiring these modules.
It aims at Node.js v4 compatibility (and that's why it uses older versions of
the tar and semver modules).

The goal of this module is to provide a simple and lightweight way of handling
pre-built native modules when no local build is possible.

Installation

``bash
npm install -S binary-downloader
`

Usage


This module uses the same binary field in package.json as node-pre-gyp.
However, it only supports the following tags:
* platform
* libc
* arch
* node_napi_label

For other tags, feel free to open an issue or a PR!

Also, to get the require string to the downloaded binary, you will have to do
the following:
`js
const PackageJSON = require('./package.json');
const binding_path = Binary.getPath(PackageJSON.binary);
const Binding = require(binding_path);
`
(You are, of courses, free to get the binary part of the package.json by any
other way that works for you!);

Proxy support

This module supports https proxy. If an URL is present in the https_proxy, the
HTTPS_PROXY or the npm_config_proxy environment variable, the download
of the binary will be done through this URL using the https-proxy-agent
module.
Alternatively, using http_proxy or HTTPS_PROXY environment variables will
use the http-proxy-agent module.

Differences with node-pre-gyp

The great node-pre-gyp module can handle the lifecycle of a native
module. It can help publishing it. It allows falling back on building the module
locally if download failed and many more.

The current module just tries its best to download a native module and make it
available to use. Nothing more, nothing less. It is therefore way lighter and
probably constitutes a good alternative to node-pre-gyp` if you want to ship
a commercial (or at least) pre-vuilt version of a module. At least, it serves
my needs here.