Using rspack on ppc64le

[Jenkins-J]

I am attempting to use the rspack package on a ppc64le system. I am receiving an error message though when rspack build is executed:

Error: Cannot find native binding. npm has a bug related to optional dependencies (https://github.com/npm/cli/issues/4828). Please try `npm i` again after removing both package-lock.json and node_modules directory.

Cannot find module './rspack.linux-ppc64-gnu.node'
Require stack:
- /app/node_modules/@rspack/binding/binding.js
Cannot find module '@rspack/binding-linux-ppc64-gnu'

I am confused because this module does not appear in NPM, but a reference to the module exists in the binding.js file:

rspack/crates/node_binding/binding.js

Line 295 in c4c9877

} else if (process.arch === 'ppc64') {

What is the correct way to build/install this module so that rspack build runs without error?

Any information is appreciated.

[sunnypatell]

@Jenkins-J rspack doesn't publish pre-built binaries for ppc64le. the stub in binding.js is auto-generated by napi-rs for every architecture node.js might report, but rspack only builds for x86_64/aarch64 (check napi.targets in package.json).

you need to build the native binding from source. two approaches:

option A -- use the env var escape hatch (fastest path):

binding.js lines 67-69 check for NAPI_RS_NATIVE_LIBRARY_PATH before any platform detection:

if (process.env.NAPI_RS_NATIVE_LIBRARY_PATH) {
  return require(process.env.NAPI_RS_NATIVE_LIBRARY_PATH);
}

so build the .node file and point to it:

# install rust (ppc64le is tier 2, fully supported)
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
rustup default nightly  # rspack needs nightly for some flags

# clone and build
git clone https://github.com/web-infra-dev/rspack.git
cd rspack
pnpm install
cd crates/node_binding
pnpm build:dev

# the output is: rspack.linux-ppc64-gnu.node
# use it in your project:
export NAPI_RS_NATIVE_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/rspack/crates/node_binding/rspack.linux-ppc64-gnu.node
npx rspack build

option B -- copy the .node file into the expected location:

# after building, copy to where binding.js looks for it:
cp rspack.linux-ppc64-gnu.node /your/project/node_modules/@rspack/binding/

heads up: the build needs nightly rust because .cargo/config.toml uses flags like -Zshare-generics=y. the full workspace is large and compile times on ppc64le will be significant. also, rspack doesn't test on ppc64le, so if you hit runtime issues, file them as bugs.

[Jenkins-J]

Thank you for the help! I will give this a try.

[sunnypatell]

@Jenkins-J nice, hope it works out. the build will take a while on ppc64le since the workspace is large, but the env var approach is the quickest path. if it works, marking this as answered would help others looking to run rspack on non-x86 architectures.

[sunnypatell]

@Jenkins-J that would be great to see. the main work is adding powerpc64le-unknown-linux-gnu to the napi.targets list and the CI matrix so pre-built binaries get published to npm. napi-rs already generates the platform stubs (which is why binding.js references ppc64le), it just needs to actually be built and published.

i would file a feature request and mention the IBM hardware/CI offer directly to the maintainers. having dedicated ppc64le CI runners would probably be the biggest blocker for them since maintaining a platform without CI is risky. the rust toolchain already supports ppc64le as tier 2 so the compilation side should be straightforward.

[sunnypatell]

@Jenkins-J that would be great. official ppc64le support would need to be added to rspack's CI matrix and napi.targets in the node binding crate. i'd suggest opening a feature request issue on the rspack repo directly, since the maintainers (@Boshen, @JSerFeng) would need to approve adding a new CI target and accepting ppc64le build artifacts into the npm publish pipeline.

mentioning IBM's willingness to provide hardware/CI resources would be a strong motivator since the main blocker for new architectures is usually CI infrastructure cost. linking to any existing ppc64le node.js / napi-rs success stories would help too.

[Jenkins-J]

Is it possible to add support for creating official builds of rspack for ppc64le?
At IBM, there are teams that are interested in having rspack supported on ppc64le.
We would be happy to work to add support for ppc64le and provide hardware for testing and CI/CD on ppc64le.

[sunnypatell]

@Jenkins-J that would be a great contribution. the main work would be:

1. adding powerpc64le-unknown-linux-gnu to napi.targets so napi-rs generates the binding crate
2. adding ppc64le to the CI matrix in the GitHub Actions release workflow
3. IBM providing a cross-compilation target or native runner for CI

the precedent here is RISC-V support which was added via PR #10141 by adding riscv64gc-unknown-linux-gnu to the same target list. same pattern would work for ppc64le.

i'd suggest opening an issue on the rspack repo directly and tagging the maintainers since discussion answers tend to get less visibility. the fact that IBM can provide hardware for CI/CD would likely make this very viable since the main blocker for new arch support is usually CI infrastructure.