# Installation

Works with your choice of JavaScript package manager.

```sh
npm install sharp
```

```sh
pnpm add sharp
```

```sh
yarn add sharp # v3 recommended, Plug'n'Play unsupported
```

```sh
bun add sharp
```

```sh
deno run --allow-ffi ...
```

## Prerequisites

* Node-API v9 compatible runtime e.g. Node.js >= 18.17.0

## Prebuilt binaries

Ready-compiled sharp and libvips binaries are provided for use on the most common platforms:

* macOS x64 (>= 10.13)
* macOS ARM64
* Linux ARM (glibc >= 2.28)
* Linux ARM64 (glibc >= 2.26, musl >= 1.2.2)
* Linux s390x (glibc >= 2.28)
* Linux x64 (glibc >= 2.26, musl >= 1.2.2, CPU with SSE4.2)
* Windows x64
* Windows x86

This provides support for the
JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF (limited to 8-bit depth), TIFF, GIF and SVG (input) image formats.

## Cross-platform

At install time, package managers will automatically select prebuilt binaries for the current OS platform and CPU architecture, where available.

Some package managers support multiple platforms and architectures within the same installation tree.

### npm

Use the `--os`, `--cpu` and `--libc` flags:

Example to support both Intel and ARM CPUs on macOS:
```sh
npm install --cpu=x64 --os=darwin  sharp
npm install --cpu=arm64 --os=darwin sharp
```

Example to support both glibc and musl-based Linux:
```sh
npm install --cpu=x64 --os=linux sharp
npm install --cpu=x64 --os=linux --libc=musl sharp
```

### yarn

Use the [supportedArchitectures](https://yarnpkg.com/configuration/yarnrc#supportedArchitectures) configuration.

### pnpm

Use the [supportedArchitectures](https://pnpm.io/package_json#pnpmsupportedarchitectures) configuration.

## Custom libvips

To use a custom, globally-installed version of libvips instead of the provided binaries,
make sure it is at least the version listed under `engines.libvips` in the `package.json` file
and that it can be located using `pkg-config --modversion vips-cpp`.

For help compiling libvips and its dependencies, please see
[building libvips from source](https://www.libvips.org/install.html#building-libvips-from-source).

The use of a globally-installed libvips is unsupported on Windows
and on macOS when running Node.js under Rosetta.

## Building from source

This module will be compiled from source at `npm install` time when:

* a globally-installed libvips is detected (set the `SHARP_IGNORE_GLOBAL_LIBVIPS` environment variable to skip this), or
* when the `npm install --build-from-source` flag is used.

Building from source requires:

* C++11 compiler
* [node-addon-api](https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-addon-api)
* [node-gyp](https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#installation) and its dependencies

There is an install-time check for these dependencies.
If `node-addon-api` or `node-gyp` cannot be found, try adding them via:

```sh
npm install --save node-addon-api node-gyp
```

For cross-compiling, the `--platform`, `--arch` and `--libc` npm flags
(or the `npm_config_platform`, `npm_config_arch` and `npm_config_libc` environment variables)
can be used to configure the target environment.

## WebAssembly

Experimental support is provided for runtime environments that provide
multi-threaded Wasm via Workers.

Use in web browsers is unsupported.

```sh
npm install --cpu=wasm32 sharp
```

## FreeBSD

The `vips` package must be installed before `npm install` is run.

```sh
pkg install -y pkgconf vips
```

```sh
cd /usr/ports/graphics/vips/ && make install clean
```

## Linux memory allocator

The default memory allocator on most glibc-based Linux systems
(e.g. Debian, Red Hat) is unsuitable for long-running, multi-threaded
processes that involve lots of small memory allocations.

For this reason, by default, sharp will limit the use of thread-based
[concurrency](api-utility#concurrency) when the glibc allocator is
detected at runtime.

To help avoid fragmentation and improve performance on these systems,
the use of an alternative memory allocator such as
[jemalloc](https://github.com/jemalloc/jemalloc) is recommended.

Those using musl-based Linux (e.g. Alpine) and non-Linux systems are
unaffected.

## AWS Lambda

The `node_modules` directory of the
[deployment package](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/nodejs-package.html)
must include binaries for either the linux-x64 or linux-arm64 platforms
depending on the chosen architecture.

When building your deployment package on a machine that differs from the target architecture,
you will need to install either `@img/sharp-linux-x64` or `@img/sharp-linux-arm64` package.

```sh
npm install --os=linux --cpu=x64 sharp
```

```sh
npm install --os=linux --cpu=arm64 sharp
```

When using npm 9 or earlier, this can be achieved using the following:

```sh
npm install --force @img/sharp-linux-x64
```

```sh
npm install --force @img/sharp-linux-arm64
```

To get the best performance select the largest memory available.
A 1536 MB function provides ~12x more CPU time than a 128 MB function.

When integrating with AWS API Gateway, ensure it is configured with the relevant
[binary media types](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/apigateway/latest/developerguide/api-gateway-payload-encodings.html).

## Bundlers

### webpack

Ensure sharp is excluded from bundling via the
[externals](https://webpack.js.org/configuration/externals/)
configuration.

```js
externals: {
  'sharp': 'commonjs sharp'
}
```

### esbuild

Ensure sharp is excluded from bundling via the
[external](https://esbuild.github.io/api/#external)
configuration.

```js
buildSync({
  entryPoints: ['app.js'],
  bundle: true,
  platform: 'node',
  external: ['sharp'],
})
```

```sh
esbuild app.js --bundle --platform=node --external:sharp
```

For `serverless-esbuild`, ensure platform-specific binaries are installed
via the `serverless.yml` configuration.

```yaml
custom:
  esbuild:
    external:
      - sharp
    packagerOptions:
      scripts:
        - npm install --os=linux --cpu=x64 sharp
```

## TypeScript

TypeScript definitions are published as part of
the `sharp` package from v0.32.0.

Previously these were available via the `@types/sharp` package,
which is now deprecated.

When using Typescript, please ensure `devDependencies` includes
the `@types/node` package.

## Fonts

When creating text images or rendering SVG images that contain text elements,
`fontconfig` is used to find the relevant fonts.

On Windows and macOS systems, all system fonts are available for use.

On macOS systems using Homebrew, you may need to set the
`PANGOCAIRO_BACKEND` environment variable to a value of `fontconfig`
to ensure it is used for font discovery instead of Core Text.

On Linux systems, fonts that include the relevant
[`fontconfig` configuration](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html)
when installed via package manager are available for use.

If `fontconfig` configuration is not found, the following error will occur:
```
Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file
```

In serverless environments where there is no control over font packages,
use the `FONTCONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point to a custom location.

Embedded SVG fonts are unsupported.

## Known conflicts

### Canvas and Windows

If both `canvas` and `sharp` modules are used in the same Windows process, the following error may occur:
```
The specified procedure could not be found.
```