Question: Is it possible to split .exe creation and service creation

[raikm]

Is it possible to use this library to create a .exe file for shipping to customers where the service gets onside created? So I would like to avoid shipping the whole node project and would rather send the .exe file to the customer.

Thanks in advance!

[coreybutler]

This library provides a service runner, not a bundler. The exe produced by this library is just a service runner, not a standalone app.

If you want a standalone bundle (i.e. a single exe), use a bundler like pkg. Alternatively, Node.js 20.0.0 shipped with experimental single executable application (SEA) support. Beware that these processes merely merge your code with the node executable, so the file size is large, even for a simple "hello world" script (~60MB for pkg/~90MB for SEA). Electron has some optimization capabilities that can get executables down to ~45MB after unnecessary extras are stripped out.

[raikm]

Thank you for the prompt response!
Just to clarify, does using the service runner in the form of the .exe mean that I won't need to separately install node on the target systems?

My goal is to minimize dependencies and avoid manual installations on the target systems.