binpress

binpress

Binary compression for Mach-O, ELF, and PE executables.

Platform Support

Platform	Binary Format	Compression	Library
macOS	Mach-O	LZFSE	Apple Compression Framework
Linux	ELF	LZFSE	Open-source lzfse library
Windows	PE	LZFSE	Open-source lzfse library

Building

pnpm run build

Outputs to build/prod/out/Final/binpress (or binpress.exe on Windows).

Prerequisites

• macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (provides clang and Compression framework)
• Linux: GCC (lzfse library is built automatically from submodule)
• Windows: MinGW or Visual Studio (lzfse library is built automatically from submodule)

Installation

After building, make binpress available system-wide:

macOS / Linux

# Option 1: Copy to /usr/local/bin
sudo cp build/prod/out/Final/binpress /usr/local/bin/

# Option 2: Add to PATH (add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc)
export PATH="$PATH:$(pwd)/build/prod/out/Final"

Windows Installation

# Copy to a directory in your PATH
copy build\prod\out\Final\binpress.exe C:\Windows\System32\

# Or add to PATH
$env:PATH += ";$(Get-Location)\build\prod\out\Final"

Verify Installation

binpress --help
# Or test with compression
binpress input.bin -o output.bin

Usage

binpress - Create self-extracting binaries and compressed data files

Usage:
  binpress <input> -o <output>              # Create self-extracting stub
  binpress <input> -d <output>              # Create compressed data file
  binpress <input> -o <stub> -d <data>      # Create both outputs
  binpress --help
  binpress --version

Arguments:
  input                Path to binary to compress

Options:
  -o, --output PATH           Output self-extracting stub
  -d, --data PATH             Output compressed data file
  --target TARGET             Target platform-arch-libc (e.g., linux-x64-musl, darwin-arm64, win32-x64)
  --target-platform PLATFORM  Target platform (linux, darwin, win32)
  --target-arch ARCH          Target architecture (x64, arm64)
  --target-libc VARIANT       Target libc (musl, glibc) - Linux only
  -h, --help                  Show this help message
  -v, --version               Show version information

Examples:
  binpress node -o node-compressed              # Self-extracting binary
  binpress node -d node.data                    # Compressed data file
  binpress node -o node-compressed -d node.data # Both outputs

Note: At least one output (-o or -d) must be specified.
      Compressed stubs are automatically detected and repacked when recompressed.

Integration

Used by node-smol-builder to create compressed Node.js binaries that are 50-70% smaller than uncompressed builds.

License

MIT