R-V8 doesn't build against Node.js 16.x

[sgallagher]

Node.js 16.x no longer ships /usr/include/libplatform which is imported by bindings.cpp.

[jeroen]

This is unfortunate. I don't think it is possible to build the R bindings without the libplatform API, as we need an API call from libplatform.h to initiate the V8 engine. I have asked advice on the v8 mailing list: https://groups.google.com/g/v8-users/c/GeIwDMWCq9I

Could the nodejs rpm be patched to include the libplatform headers anyway?

[sgallagher]

I have a build of Node.js 16.4.1 going right now that reverts the header patch. That should keep us going until you get an answer from the v8 upstream.

[jeroen]

OK awesome. Technically we really only need the libplatform header, that is also used in the V8 hello-world example. It's weird that nodejs considers this header as unstable.

[jeroen]

Fixed in upstream nodejs: nodejs/node#39288

[sgallagher]

Excellent; when 16.5.0 is out, I can drop my patch then. Thanks for letting me know.

[jeroen]

@sgallagher 16.5.0 was released last week: https://github.com/nodejs/node/releases/tag/v16.5.0

[sgallagher]

@sgallagher 16.5.0 was released last week: https://github.com/nodejs/node/releases/tag/v16.5.0

I'm aware, but I've been swamped with other stuff this past week; I'll try to get this updated soon.

[jeroen]

No worries, thanks for your work on this.

[sgallagher]

This should be fixed on Rawhide as of nodejs-16.5.0-1.fc35

[jeroen]

@sgallagher is there any way we can get this in EPEL-8?

Alternatively would it be possible to provide this as a module in CentOS, similar to your nodejs:13 repo ?

[sgallagher]

@jeroen RHEL 8.5 Beta provides a Node.js 16.x module stream. That should suffice, yes?

[jeroen]

Do these streams include v8-devel? Previously I would use on CentOS 8 something like this:

yum module enable nodejs:13
yum install v8-devel

How do I install the v8 headers from nodejs:14 or nodejs:16 ?

[sgallagher]

They are included in the nodejs-devel subpackage on nodejs:16 (but are missing from nodejs:14). They're part of /usr/include/node, though. So you'll need to make sure your build can look there.

[jeroen]

Ah okay, I haven't been able to test that yet because I can't find a docker container that runs centos 8.5 beta, and I don't have a RHEL machine.

They're part of /usr/include/node, though. So you'll need to make sure your build can look there.

OK we can add that. Are the libs still called libv8.so or should it link to libnode.so? Is there a reason there is no libv8-devel package anymore (like in Fedora) that provides symlinks with /usr/include/v8 and libv8.so etc ?