electron-builder packages with wrong electron binary version

[thomasnordquist]

• Version: 20.44.1

• Target: mac / snap / nsis/ appx ....

I have [email protected] installed but when I package, electron-builder downloads [email protected] which is not the version I developed and tested with. This may lead to very unfortunate bugs/incompatibilities.

Details:
electron-builder appears to rely on the electron version provided in package.json and ignores installed/locked versions.
A version string like ^5.0.0 can be understood as 5.0.0 >= allowed versions > 6.0.0.

Example
While version 5 is specified in package.json

"dependencies": {
    "electron": "^5",
    "electron-builder": "20.44.1"
}

The package manager may/will choose to install more recent packages:
yarn.lock

electron@5:
  version "5.0.4"
  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/electron/-/electron-5.0.4.tgz#2e0d09055363e983f4a73317cde4821c39617b02"
  integrity sha512-7QaKorvANvP+azMT7wElx33oLlqw8QxmLs7/outfH7LC5amErk4EUtWDesQ6Zgr+s5pYFbykl8ZtJ4ZGXER05g==
  dependencies:
    "@types/node" "^10.12.18"
    electron-download "^4.1.0"
    extract-zip "^1.0.3"

yarn.lock or package-lock.json do reflect the actual used package versions.

The workaround is to set the specific electron version in the package.json dependencies, this is however not the way one normally uses the package manager since lock files exist. (and will most certainly interfere with greenkeeper and depandabot)

Just noticed this by accident, packaging using electron 5.0.0 and expecting 5.0.4 (since I specifically updated to 5.0.4) would have caused a lot of headaches.

[develar]

No, electron-builder checks installed version — see

electron-builder/packages/app-builder-lib/src/electron/electronVersion.ts

Line 23 in fd86d92

export async function getElectronVersionFromInstalled(projectDir: string) {

Maybe you use custom project dir during build (that not equal to actual project dir, where node modules installed)?

[thomasnordquist]

You are correct, I use a fresh clone (from .git) to prepare builds in a subdirectory. (to prevent using a dirty workspace by accident)

After building I remove the devDependencies in this subdirectory with yarn install --production, electron-builder can no longer determine the electron version since electron itself is a dev dependency.

I can confirm that the issue does not occur when the dev-dependencies are present/installed.

[develar]

Another workaround for such build scripts: pass CLI arg -c.electronVersion or set config "electronVersion": "version".

[sandeep1995]

If you are trying to upgrade to Electron 7.0, make sure your dev dependencies is like the following

"devDependencies": {
    "electron": "7.0.0",
}

Notice it has to be 7.0.0 not ^7.0.0. The parser is poorly written.

[edmofro]

If using a yarn-workspaces based mono-repo and seeing "none of the possible electron modules are installed", add the following to your package.json

"workspaces": {
    "nohoist": [
      "electron"
    ]
  }

This forces yarn to keep electron in the package node_modules rather than hoisting it up to the root (where electron-builder doesn't seem to spot it)

[AgainPsychoX]

I have similar issue while using npm workspaces. I have structure

root/             // Main folder, workspaces root
root/app/         // My app, no real `node_modules` here
...               // The app is just using node_modules of its workspace,
root/node_modules // <-- this one. And there is `electron`, yet, its not directly in the project (the app) directory, so can't find the version...
...

Maybe the getElectronVersionFromInstalled could check directory above if the project is using workspaces?

Or, why can't the version be extracted from package-lock.json?

[steveruizok]

The fix for me was replacing electron: "^15.3.0" with electron: "15.3.0" in my package.json's devDependencies.

[noor-tg]

@develar solution is best for monorepos

[tresorama]

If using a yarn-workspaces based mono-repo and seeing "none of the possible electron modules are installed", add the following to your package.json

"workspaces": {
    "nohoist": [
      "electron"
    ]
  }

This forces yarn to keep electron in the package node_modules rather than hoisting it up to the root (where electron-builder doesn't seem to spot it)

Working in a Yarn monorepo workspace this solution worked!
But in my case the glob pattern should be edited like this to make it nohoisting every electron-ish packages

"workspaces": {
    "packages":[
      "apps/*"
    ],
    "nohoist": [
      "**electron**"
    ]
  },

Thank you @develar ! 😎

[Dhruv7201]

electron version to 7.0.1; update electron-builder to 22.4.0