Repo Structure

In this section, we will explore the current Deno repository structure, such that you won't feel lost.

Here is the link to the repo: https://github.com/denoland/deno

We will list some of the important directories/files you might need to interact with, and briefly introduce each of them:

# DIRECTORIES
build_extra/: Some customized rules of building Deno
js/: TypeScript Frontend
libdeno/: C/C++ Middle-end
src/: Rust Backend
tests/: Integration Tests
third_party/: Third party code
tools/: Deno tools for testing and building

# FILES
BUILD.gn: Main Deno build rules
Cargo.toml: Dependency info for Rust end
package.json: Node dependencies (mostly for TypeScript compiler and Rollup)
build.rs: Cargo build rules

build_extra/

Some customized rules for building Deno, consisting of rules for FlatBuffers and Rust crates at the moment.

One important file you might want to pay attention to is build_extra/rust/BUILD.gn. When adding a new Rust crate in third_party/, we need to add an entry into this file. For example, this is the rule for building a crate called time:

build_extra/rust/BUILD.gn

rust_crate("time") {
  # Where is this crate?
  source_root = "$registry_github/time-0.1.40/src/lib.rs"
  # What are its dependencies?
  extern = [
    ":libc",
    ":winapi",
  ]
}

(rust_crate GN template is defined in build_extra/rust/rust.gni)

js/

This is where code for TypeScript frontend is located. Most APIs are defined in its own file, accompanied with a test file. For example, readFile is defined in read_file.ts, while its unit tests are in read_file_test.ts.

Besides files for API, here are some other special files:

1. main.ts: denoMain is defined in this file, which is invoked by Rust backend as the entry for bootstrapping TypeScript code.

2. globals.ts: All globals that do not need imports are attached here.

3. deno.ts: All deno namespace APIs are exported here.

4. libdeno.ts: Type definition for customized V8 API exposed to TypeScript.

5. unit_tests.ts: All unit tests are imported here and executed.

6. compiler.ts: Customized TypeScript compilation logic for Deno.

libdeno/

The C/C++ libdeno middle-end lives here.

1. api.cc: libdeno APIs that are exposed and callable from the Rust side

2. binding.cc: code that handles interaction with V8 and where V8 C++ bindings are added. These APIs are exposed Rust and TypeScript side both.

3. snapshot_creator.cc: logic for creating V8 snapshot during build.

src/

The Rust backend lives here.

1. libdeno.rs: exposes libdeno APIs from libdeno/api.cc to Rust

2. isolate.rs: extracts V8 isolate (an isolated instance of V8 engine) and event loop creation logic using libdeno APIs

3. deno_dir.rs: contains logic for Deno module file resolution and caching

4. ops.rs: where each Deno Op (operation) is handled. This is where the actual file system and network accesses are done.

5. main.rs: contains main function for Rust. This is the ACTUAL entry point when you run the Deno binary.

6. msg.fbs: FlatBuffers definition file for message structure, used for message passing. Modify this file when you want to add or modify a message structure.

tests/

Integration tests for Deno.

*.jsor *.ts files define the code to run for each test. *.test defined how should this test be executed. Usually, *.out defines the expected output of a test (the actual name is specified in *.test files)

See tests/README.md for more details.

third_party/

Third party code for Deno. Contains actual node modules, v8, Rust crate code and so on. It is placed in https://github.com/denoland/deno_third_party.

tools/

Mostly Python scripts for a range of purposes.

1. build.py: Builds Deno

2. setup.py: Setup and necessary code fetching

3. format.py: Code formatting

4. lint.py: Code linting

5. sync_third_party.py: Sync third_party code after user modifies package.json, Cargo.toml , etc.

BUILD.gn

Contains the most important Deno build logic. We will visit this file later in the example of adding a new Deno call.

build.rs

Defines cargo build logic. Internally invokes BUILD.gn.