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Building Native Node.js 12 Addons on z/OS

Petr Plavjaník
5 min readJul 20, 2020

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Here I will show how you can build a native C++ addon for Node.js on z/OS.

It takes a little effort but it can be done! IBM has ported Node.js to z/OS so you can run Node.js server applications on z/OS. You can download it from the IBM website: IBM SDK for Node.js — z/OS — Overview.

You can install the base Node.js to z/OS by following instructions in this story:

In this story, you will see how to install the provided C/C++ compiler so you will be able to build native extensions with node-gyp.

When do you need to write a native addon for Node.js on z/OS? There are two main reasons. The first one is to optimize the performance-sensitive code such as CPU intensive calculations. Second, is to interoperate with a native mainframe application that you have on z/OS.

Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash

Prerequisites

You need to have all the prerequisites listed at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSTRRS_12.0.0/com.ibm.nodejs.zos.v12.doc/paxz.htm:

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Petr Plavjaník
Petr Plavjaník

Written by Petr Plavjaník

Petr’s main areas of expertise are mainframes and automation, and using modern development tools and languages such as Java, Python, and Node.js on z/OS.

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