Electron-builder: Starting electron application with electron-builder start

Created on 27 Mar 2018 · 8Comments · Source: electron-userland/electron-builder

Version: 20.8.0

Target: macOS, Windows

Currently we can publish binaries for Windows and macOS with electron-builder. During development we start our application with electron ./PATH_TO_MAIN.js and would like to switch to electron-builder start, since it would consider all the configuration from our electron-builder.json.

Unfortunately we are getting following error with both os (window and macOS)

Error: Cannot find module 'electron-webpack/dev-runner'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:547:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:474:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:596:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
    at start (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/out/cli/start.js:10:3)
    at _yargs.default.command.command.command.command.command.wrap (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/out/cli/cli.js:148:239)
    at then (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/out/cli/cli.js:153:97)
From previous event:
    at runCallback (timers.js:794:20)
    at tryOnImmediate (timers.js:752:5)
    at processImmediate [as _immediateCallback] (timers.js:729:5)
From previous event:
    at Object.args [as handler] (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/out/cli/cli.js:153:86)
    at Object.runCommand (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/node_modules/yargs/lib/command.js:235:44)
    at Object.parseArgs [as _parseArgs] (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/node_modules/yargs/yargs.js:1014:30)
    at Object.get [as argv] (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/node_modules/yargs/yargs.js:957:21)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/ROOT_PATH/node_modules/electron-builder/out/cli/cli.js:148:373)
    at Module._compile (module.js:652:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:663:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:565:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:505:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:497:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:693:10)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:188:16)
    at bootstrap_node.js:609:3

We tried it already with different versions of electron-webpack (1.11.0 , 1.13.0 and 2.0.0)

Does anyone else encounter this problem?

question

Source

centigrade-kdk

👍7

Most helpful comment

@develar I think you're missing the point. The documentation for electron-builder lists a start command that doesn't work, even if you are using electron-webpack.

I tracked down the code, and as you can see, it requires electron-webpack/dev-runner, which isn't a valid path. So, you should at best fix the code so it works, or at the very least remove the start command and documentation around it.

The correct path is electron-webpack/out/dev/dev-runner, but as far as I can tell, electron-webpack does not expose a supported public API that you can use to run it outside of the CLI. So if you don't use the CLI, then you risk running into internal changes that break your code.

jordanbtucker on 4 Aug 2018

👍11

All 8 comments

I have the same issue but on windows 10. Were you able to fix it?

genepool99 on 4 May 2018

No, I was not investigating further on this. We still start the application like electron /path/to/main.js

centigrade-kdk on 4 May 2018

👍1

Weird, you would think others would be reporting the same issue. Thanks.

genepool99 on 4 May 2018

@genepool99 I'm having the same issue on Windows 10 as well. I don't know enough about npm to understand how electron-webpack/dev-runner is even a valid module. Maybe it's not?

In any case, I suspect the lack of others reporting this issue is more part of the development ethos - you get something working somehow and then just stop worrying about it. I suspect that most people who try to follow the logic at https://www.electron.build/ are actually hitting the same issue.

I'm concerned that I'm using a different version of electron during development and packaging, so I'd like to get this fixed! If someone more knowledgeable about npm can chime in, I'm happy to try to fix it.

davclark on 16 May 2018

electron-builder start is supposed to be used with electron-webpack. You don't need to use it if you use another framework. Use whatever you want to start app in a dev mode :)

develar on 17 May 2018

👎7

@develar I think you're missing the point. The documentation for electron-builder lists a start command that doesn't work, even if you are using electron-webpack.

jordanbtucker on 4 Aug 2018

👍11

I agree, why is this closed out? I have both electron-webpack and electron-builder and have to specify the dist as the starting point and build in another step.