Application-Programming-Interface (API)

This documentation serves as the comprehensive guide to the Bare API, the core JavaScript functionality offered by the Bare runtime environment.

Bare

The core JavaScript API of Bare is available through the global Bare namespace.

Bare.platform

The identifier of the operating system for which Bare was compiled. The possible values are android, darwin, ios, linux, and win32.

Bare.arch

The identifier of the processor architecture for which Bare was compiled. The possible values are arm, arm64, ia32, and x64.

Bare.argv

The command line arguments passed to the process when launched.

Bare.pid

The ID of the current process.

Bare.exitCode

The code that will be returned once the process exits. If the process is exited using Bare.exit() without specifying a code, Bare.exitCode is used.

Bare.suspended

Whether or not the process is currently suspended.

Bare.exiting

Whether or not the process is currently exiting.

Bare.version

The Bare version string.

Bare.versions

An object containing the version strings of Bare and its dependencies.

Bare.exit([code])

Immediately terminate the process or current thread with an exit status of code which defaults to Bare.exitCode.

Bare.suspend()

Suspend the process and all threads. This will emit a suspend event signalling that all work should stop immediately. When all work has stopped and the process would otherwise exit, an idle event will be emitted. If the process is not resumed from an idle event listener and no additional work is scheduled, the loop will block until the process is resumed. If additional work is scheduled from an idle event, the idle event will be emitted again once all work has stopped unless the process was resumed.

Bare.resume()

Resume the process and all threads after suspension. This can be used to cancel suspension after the suspend event has been emitted and up until all idle event listeners have run.

Bare.on('uncaughtException', err)

Emitted when a JavaScript exception is thrown within an execution context without being caught by any exception handlers within that execution context. By default, uncaught exceptions are printed to stderr and the processes aborted. Adding an event listener for the uncaughtException event overrides the default behavior.

Bare.on('unhandledRejection', reason, promise)

Emitted when a JavaScript promise is rejected within an execution context without that rejection being handled within that execution context. By default, unhandled rejections are printed to stderr and the process aborted. Adding an event listener for the unhandledRejection event overrides the default behavior.

Bare.on('beforeExit', code)

Emitted when the loop runs out of work and before the process or current thread exits. This provides a chance to schedule additional work and keep the process from exiting. If additional work is scheduled, beforeExit will be emitted again once the loop runs out of work.

If the process is exited explicitly, such as by calling Bare.exit() or as the result of an uncaught exception, the beforeExit event will not be emitted.

Bare.on('exit', code)

Emitted just before the process or current thread terminates. Additional work scheduled from an exit event listener will be given a chance to run after which the process will terminate. If the process is forcefully terminated from an exit event listener, the remaining listeners will not run.

[!IMPORTANT] Only cleanup work may be scheduled from an exit event listener. All I/O, including timers, will be closed on exit and can therefore not be used.

Bare.on('teardown')

Emitted after the process or current thread has terminated and just before the JavaScript environment is torn down. Additional work must not be scheduled from a teardown event listener. Bare itself will register teardown event listeners to join dangling threads and unload native addons.

[!IMPORTANT] teardown listeners should generally be prepended to have the listeners run in last in, first out order:

Bare.prependListener('teardown', () => { ... })

Bare.on('suspend')

Emitted when the process or current thread is suspended. Any in-progress or outstanding work, such as network activity or file system access, should be deferred, cancelled, or paused when the suspend event is emitted and no additional work may be scheduled.

Bare.on('idle')

Emitted when the process or current thread becomes idle after suspension. If no additional work is scheduled from this event, the loop will block and no additional work be performed until the process is resumed. An idle event listener may call Bare.resume() to cancel the suspension.

Bare.on('resume')

Emitted when the process or current thread resumes after suspension. Deferred and paused work should be continued when the resume event is emitted and new work may again be scheduled.

Bare.Addon

The Bare.Addon namespace provides support for loading native addons, which are typically written in C/C++ and distributed as shared libraries.

const addon = Addon.load(url)

Load a static or dynamic native addon identified by url. If url is not a static native addon, Bare will instead look for a matching dynamic object library.

const unloaded = Addon.unload(url)

Unload a dynamic native addon identified by url. If the function returns true, the addon was unloaded from memory. If it instead returns false, the addon is still in use by one or more threads and will only be unloaded from memory when those threads either exit or explicitly unload the addon.

const url = Addon.resolve(specifier, parentURL[, options])

Resolve a native addon specifier by searching for a static native addon or dynamic object library matching specifier imported from parentURL.

Options include:

{
  // The name of the addon. If `null`, it will instead be read from the
  // resolved `package.json`.
  name: null,
  // The version of the addon. If `null`, it will instead be read from the
  // resolved `package.json`.
  version: null
}

Bare.Thread

The Bare.Thread provides support for lightweight threads. Threads are similar to workers in Node.js, but provide only minimal API surface for creating and joining threads.

Thread.isMainThread

true if the current thread is the main thread.

Thread.self

A reference to the current thread as a ThreadProxy object. Will be null on the main thread.

Thread.self.data

A copy of or, if shared, reference to the data buffer that was passed to the current thread on creation. Will be null if no buffer was passed.

const thread = new Thread([filename][, options][, callback])

Start a new thread that will run the contents of filename. If callback is provided, its function body will be treated as the contents of filename and invoked on the new thread with Thread.self.data passed as an argument.

Options include:

{
  // Optional data to pass to the thread
  data: Buffer | ArrayBuffer | SharedArrayBuffer | External,
  // Optional file source, will be read from `filename` if neither `source` nor `callback` are provided
  source: string | Buffer,
  // Optional source encoding if `source` is a string
  encoding: 'utf8',
  // Optional stack size in bytes, pass 0 for default
  stackSize: 0
}

const thread = Thread.create([filename][, options][, callback])

Convenience method for the new Thread() constructor.

thread.joined

Whether or not the thread has been joined with the current thread.

thread.join()

Block and wait for the thread to exit.