is-apple-silicon

This Node.js module provides synchronous utility functions for detecting Apple Silicon CPUs and assessing Node.js binary compatibility. It is particularly useful for ensuring that node_modules with native add-ons are correctly compiled for the target architecture, especially when working with Docker containers on Macs with Apple Silicon.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Examples
• Expected Outputs
• Testing
• Contributing

Installation

npm install is-apple-silicon

Usage

The module exports three functions:

• isAppleSilicon(forceCheck?): Determines if the system has an Apple Silicon CPU.
• isNodeNative(forceCheck?): Checks if Node.js is running natively on the system's architecture.
• isRosetta(forceCheck?): Identifies if the process is running under Rosetta translation on Apple Silicon.

Each function includes an optional forceCheck parameter, set to false by default. When true, this parameter bypasses the cached results and forces a fresh check of os.arch() and os.cpus().

Examples

CommonJS

const {isAppleSilicon, isNodeNative, isRosetta} = require('is-apple-silicon');

ESM

import {isAppleSilicon, isNodeNative, isRosetta} from 'is-apple-silicon';

Expected Outputs

Node.js 16+ is required for Apple Silicon support. Node.js 14 and earlier only supports x86 (it will always return false for isNodeNative() on Apple Silicon).

On a MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon and Node 14 (no arm64 support):

• isAppleSilicon() === true
• isNodeNative() === false
• isRosetta() === true

On MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon and Node 16+ (arm64 support):

• isAppleSilicon() === true
• isNodeNative() === true
• isRosetta() === false

On Intel MacBook Pro with Node 16+ (x64):

• isAppleSilicon() === false
• isNodeNative() === true
• isRosetta() === false

On a non-Apple machine:

• isAppleSilicon() === false
• isNodeNative() === true
• isRosetta() === false

Testing

The module includes a test script that can be run with npm test.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues for any bugs or feature requests.