How do I make a GitHub repository into an exe?

Question

I am new into software developing. I have found this GitHub repository which I plan to modify. Let's just say I fork this repository and modify it. How would I then be able to export it from there. By export it I meant turn all of those files into one windows executable file. Thanks.

Answer 1

In general, building a project is a project-specific task unless the project is written in a language (such as Rust) that has a built-in build tool. If you're unclear about the steps to build a project, you should look in the documentation or the wiki for steps about how to do so, and failing that open an issue asking them to document the procedure for building the project.

Just looking at the project, it does not seem obvious that it should produce a binary executable of any sort since it's written mostly in JavaScript.

Answer 2

Usually you use a compiler to turn source code into machine code (exe files).

As bk2204 mentioned, this project is based on Javascript and Node.js. Javascript is interpreted instead of compiled, so another program (Node.js) reads the source code and executes it directly every time instead of first compiling it into an exe file. That other program itself may be in an exe file.

The project you have linked is a fork of this project, and that one seems to have a Windows launcher/installer exe file (that probably installs or contains Node.js, but I haven't checked). That installer is available here in both exe and source code form. So you could modify the launcher and rebuild it, but the main app is not in the launcher, instead it's in all the JS files. You may be able to edit the JS files and just use the same launcher without modifying it. There may be a packaging step required after editing the JS files, to package them into a form that the launcher expects. You would need to run this build step after every time you modify the JS files, to provide the new code to the launcher. You would have to explore the project's structure and build process to find out the exact steps.

If you're very new that may be exceedingly difficult.

You may want to practice by learning Javascript and Node.js. You could after that try Java which is compiled, and possibly more powerful than Javascript. Just for fun. Maybe you could do 30 of these practice projects, then you'll have a chance of being able to modify this project successfully.