207 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
207 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
# Electron Packager
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Package your [Electron](https://electronjs.org) app into OS-specific bundles (`.app`, `.exe`, etc.) via JavaScript or the command line.
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[](https://circleci.com/gh/electron/electron-packager/tree/main)
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[](https://codecov.io/gh/electron/electron-packager)
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[](https://npm.im/electron-packager)
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[](https://discord.gg/electron)
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[Supported Platforms](#supported-platforms) |
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[Installation](#installation) |
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[Usage](#usage) |
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[API](https://electron.github.io/electron-packager/main/) |
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[Contributing](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) |
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[Support](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/SUPPORT.md) |
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[Related Apps/Libraries](#related) |
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[FAQ](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/docs/faq.md) |
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[Release Notes](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/NEWS.md)
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----
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## About
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Electron Packager is a command line tool and Node.js library that bundles Electron-based application
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source code with a renamed Electron executable and supporting files into folders ready for distribution.
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For creating distributables like installers and Linux packages, consider using either [Electron
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Forge](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge) (which uses Electron Packager
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internally), or one of the [related Electron tools](#distributable-creators), which utilizes
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Electron Packager-created folders as a basis.
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Note that packaged Electron applications can be relatively large. A zipped, minimal Electron
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application is approximately the same size as the zipped prebuilt binary for a given target
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platform, target arch, and [Electron version](https://github.com/electron/electron/releases)
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_(files named `electron-v${version}-${platform}-${arch}.zip`)_.
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## Supported Platforms
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Electron Packager is known to run on the following **host** platforms:
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* Windows (32/64 bit)
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* macOS (formerly known as OS X)
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* Linux (x86/x86_64)
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It generates executables/bundles for the following **target** platforms:
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* Windows (also known as `win32`, for x86, x86_64, and arm64 architectures)
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* macOS (also known as `darwin`) / [Mac App Store](https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/mac-app-store-submission-guide/) (also known as `mas`)<sup>*</sup> (for x86_64 and arm64 architectures)
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* Linux (for x86, x86_64, armv7l, arm64, and mips64el architectures)
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<sup>*</sup> *Note for macOS / Mac App Store target bundles: the `.app` bundle can only be signed when building on a host macOS platform.*
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## Installation
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This module requires Node.js 10.0 or higher to run.
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```sh
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npm install --save-dev electron-packager
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```
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It is **not** recommended to install `electron-packager` globally.
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### Building Windows apps from non-Windows platforms
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Building an Electron app for the Windows target platform requires editing the `Electron.exe` file.
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Currently, Electron Packager uses [`node-rcedit`](https://github.com/atom/node-rcedit) to accomplish
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this. A Windows executable is bundled in that Node package and needs to be run in order for this
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functionality to work, so on non-Windows host platforms (not including WSL),
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[Wine](https://www.winehq.org/) 1.6 or later needs to be installed. On macOS, it is installable
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via [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
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## Usage
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JavaScript API usage can be found in the [API documentation](https://electron.github.io/electron-packager/main/modules/electronpackager.html).
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### From the Command Line
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Running Electron Packager from the command line has this basic form:
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```
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npx electron-packager <sourcedir> <appname> --platform=<platform> --arch=<arch> [optional flags...]
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```
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**Note**: `npx` can be substituted for `yarn` or `npm exec` depending on what package manager and
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the version you have installed.
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This will:
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- Find or download the correct release of Electron
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- Use that version of Electron to create an app in `<out>/<appname>-<platform>-<arch>` *(this can be customized via an optional flag)*
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`--platform` and `--arch` can be omitted, in two cases:
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* If you specify `--all` instead, bundles for all valid combinations of target
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platforms/architectures will be created.
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* Otherwise, a single bundle for the host platform/architecture will be created.
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For an overview of the other optional flags, run `electron-packager --help` or see
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[usage.txt](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/usage.txt). For
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detailed descriptions, see the [API documentation](https://electron.github.io/electron-packager/main/modules/electronpackager.html).
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If `appname` is omitted, this will use the name specified by "productName" or "name" in the nearest package.json.
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**Characters in the Electron app name which are not allowed in all target platforms' filenames
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(e.g., `/`), will be replaced by hyphens (`-`).**
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You should be able to launch the app on the platform you built for. If not, check your settings and try again.
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**Be careful** not to include `node_modules` you don't want into your final app. If you put them in
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the `devDependencies` section of `package.json`, by default none of the modules related to those
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dependencies will be copied in the app bundles. (This behavior can be turned off with the
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`prune: false` API option or `--no-prune` CLI flag.) In addition, folders like `.git` and
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`node_modules/.bin` will be ignored by default. You can use `--ignore` to ignore files and folders
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via a regular expression (*not* a [glob pattern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_%28programming%29)).
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Examples include `--ignore=\.gitignore` or `--ignore="\.git(ignore|modules)"`.
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#### Example
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Let's assume that you have made an app based on the [electron-quick-start](https://github.com/electron/electron-quick-start) repository on a macOS host platform with the following file structure:
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```
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foobar
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├── package.json
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├── index.html
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├── […other files, like the app's LICENSE…]
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└── script.js
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```
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…and that the following is true:
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* `electron-packager` is installed locally
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* `productName` in `package.json` has been set to `Foo Bar`
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* The `electron` module is in the `devDependencies` section of `package.json`, and set to the exact version of `1.4.15`.
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* `npm install` for the `Foo Bar` app has been run at least once
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When one runs the following command for the first time in the `foobar` directory:
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```
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npx electron-packager .
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```
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`electron-packager` will do the following:
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* Use the current directory for the `sourcedir`
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* Infer the `appname` from the `productName` in `package.json`
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* Infer the `appVersion` from the `version` in `package.json`
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* Infer the `platform` and `arch` from the host, in this example, `darwin` platform and `x64` arch.
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* Download the darwin x64 build of Electron 1.4.15 (and cache the downloads in `~/.electron`)
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* Build the macOS `Foo Bar.app`
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* Place `Foo Bar.app` in `foobar/Foo Bar-darwin-x64/` (since an `out` directory was not specified, it used the current working directory)
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The file structure now looks like:
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```
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foobar
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├── Foo Bar-darwin-x64
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│ ├── Foo Bar.app
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│ │ └── […Mac app contents…]
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│ ├── LICENSE [the Electron license]
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│ └── version
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├── […other application bundles, like "Foo Bar-win32-x64" (sans quotes)…]
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├── package.json
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├── index.html
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├── […other files, like the app's LICENSE…]
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└── script.js
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```
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The `Foo Bar.app` folder generated can be executed by a system running macOS, which will start the packaged Electron app. This is also true of the Windows x64 build on a system running a new enough version of Windows for a 64-bit system (via `Foo Bar-win32-x64/Foo Bar.exe`), and so on.
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## Related
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- [Electron Forge](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge) - creates, builds, and distributes modern Electron applications
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- [electron-packager-interactive](https://github.com/Urucas/electron-packager-interactive) - an interactive CLI for electron-packager
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- [grunt-electron](https://github.com/sindresorhus/grunt-electron) - grunt plugin for electron-packager
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### Distributable Creators
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* [electron-installer-zip](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-zip) - creates symlink-compatible ZIP files
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Windows:
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* [electron-winstaller](https://github.com/electron/windows-installer) - Squirrel.Windows-based installer from the Electron maintainers group
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* [electron-windows-store](https://github.com/felixrieseberg/electron-windows-store) - creates an AppX package for the Windows Store
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* [electron-wix-msi](https://github.com/felixrieseberg/electron-wix-msi) - creates traditional MSI installers
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* [electron-installer-windows](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-windows) - alternative Squirrel.Windows-based installer
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macOS:
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* [electron-installer-dmg](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-dmg) - creates a DMG
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Linux:
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* [electron-installer-debian](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-debian) - creates a DEB file
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* [electron-installer-redhat](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-redhat) - creates an RPM
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* [electron-installer-flatpak](https://github.com/endlessm/electron-installer-flatpak) - creates a Flatpak file
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* [electron-installer-snap](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-snap) - creates a Snap file
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### Plugins
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These Node modules utilize Electron Packager API hooks:
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- [electron-packager-languages](https://npm.im/electron-packager-languages) - sets the locales
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available to Electron when packaged, which is used by the Mac App Store, among other places
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- [electron-packager-plugin-non-proprietary-codecs-ffmpeg](https://www.npmjs.com/package/electron-packager-plugin-non-proprietary-codecs-ffmpeg) - replaces the normal version of FFmpeg in Electron with a version without proprietary codecs
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- [electron-rebuild](https://github.com/electron/electron-rebuild) - rebuilds native Node.js modules
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against the packaged Electron version
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