isal-node

Node.js bindings for the Intel Storage Acceleration Library (ISA-L), providing high-performance compression and decompression for GZIP, DEFLATE, and ZLIB formats.

I built this largely with the help of claude-code.

Installation

``bash
npm install isal-node
`

The package automatically detects your platform and either:
1. Uses a pre-built binary (no compilation needed)
2. Falls back to building from source (if no pre-built binary available)

$3

- macOS ARM64 (Apple Silicon)
- Linux x86_64 (Intel/AMD 64-bit)
- Linux ARM64 (ARM 64-bit)

$3

If no pre-built binary is available, the package will build from source. You'll need:
- Rust toolchain (curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs/ | sh)
- Build tools for your platform:
- macOS: Xcode command line tools (xcode-select --install)
- Linux: build-essential package (sudo apt-get install build-essential)
- Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools or Visual Studio Community

Usage

$3

`javascript
const isal = require('isal-node');

// Simple compression/decompression
const data = Buffer.from('Hello, World!');

// GZIP (Node.js zlib compatible)
const gzipped = isal.gzip(data);
const ungzipped = isal.gunzip(gzipped);

// DEFLATE (Node.js zlib compatible)
const deflated = isal.deflate(data);
const inflated = isal.inflate(deflated);

// With Sync suffix (Node.js zlib compatible)
const gzippedSync = isal.gzipSync(data);
const ungzippedSync = isal.gunzipSync(gzippedSync);

// ZLIB (additional formats)
const compressed = isal.compress(data);
const decompressed = isal.decompress(compressed);
`

$3

`javascript
const isal = require('isal-node');

async function compressData() {
const data = Buffer.from('Hello, World!');

// GZIP (Node.js zlib compatible naming)
const gzipped = await isal.gzipAsync(data);
const ungzipped = await isal.gunzipAsync(gzipped);

// DEFLATE (Node.js zlib compatible naming)
const deflated = await isal.deflateAsync(data);
const inflated = await isal.inflateAsync(deflated);

// ZLIB (additional formats)
const compressed = await isal.compressAsync(data);
const decompressed = await isal.decompressAsync(compressed);
}

// Parallel compression for better performance
async function compressMultiple(dataArray) {
const promises = dataArray.map(data => isal.gzipAsync(data));
const compressed = await Promise.all(promises);
return compressed;
}
`

API

$3

Sync:
- gzip(input, options?) - Compress using GZIP
- gunzip(input) - Decompress GZIP data
- deflate(input, options?) - Compress using DEFLATE
- inflate(input) - Decompress DEFLATE data
- gzipSync(input, options?) - Compress using GZIP (explicit sync)
- gunzipSync(input) - Decompress GZIP data (explicit sync)
- deflateSync(input, options?) - Compress using DEFLATE (explicit sync)
- inflateSync(input) - Decompress DEFLATE data (explicit sync)

Async:
- gzipAsync(input, options?) - Compress using GZIP (async)
- gunzipAsync(input) - Decompress GZIP data (async)
- deflateAsync(input, options?) - Compress using DEFLATE (async)
- inflateAsync(input) - Decompress DEFLATE data (async)

Additional Formats:
- compress(input, options?) - Compress using ZLIB
- decompress(input) - Decompress ZLIB data
- compressAsync(input, options?) - Compress using ZLIB (async)
- decompressAsync(input) - Decompress ZLIB data (async)

$3

- level - Compression level (0, 1, or 3). Default: 3
- 0: No compression (fastest)
- 1: Fast compression
- 3: Best compression

Building

`bash
npm install
npm run build
`

Testing

`bash
npm test # Run synchronous tests
npm run test:async # Run asynchronous tests
npm run test:all # Run all tests
`

Benchmarks

Run benchmarks to compare performance against Node.js built-in zlib:

- npm run benchmark - Full benchmark with multiple data sizes and types
- npm run benchmark:quick - Quick benchmark with smaller data sets
- npm run benchmark:async` - Async vs sync performance comparison

License

MIT