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electron-builder
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electron-userland/electron-builder
 * electron-updater@5.3.0
 * 12.6k
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electron-builder
electron-userland/electron-builder
 * electron-updater@5.3.0
 * 12.6k
 * 1.6k

 * Introduction Introduction
   Table of contents
    * Installation
       * Note for PNPM
       * Note for Yarn 3
   
    * Boilerplates
    * Quick Setup Guide
    * Programmatic Usage
    * Pack Only in a Distributable Format
    * Debug
    * Community

 * Command Line Interface (CLI)
 * Programmatic API
   Programmatic API
    * API
    * Example

 * Donate
 * Configuration
   Configuration
    * Common Configuration
    * Application Contents
    * File Patterns
    * macOS
      macOS
       * Any macOS Target
       * DMG
       * MAS
       * PKG
   
    * Windows
      Windows
       * Any Windows Target
       * NSIS
       * AppX
       * Squirrel.Windows
   
    * Linux
      Linux
       * Any Linux Target
       * AppImage
       * Flatpak
       * Snap
   
    * Publish

 * Guides
   Guides
    * Icons
    * Auto Update
    * Code Signing
    * Multi Platform Build

 * Tutorials
   Tutorials
    * Loading App Dependencies Manually
    * Two package.json Structure
    * macOS Kernel Extensions
    * Sign a Windows app on macOS/Linux
    * Release Using Channels
    * Test Update on s3 Locally

Table of contents
 * Installation
    * Note for PNPM
    * Note for Yarn 3

 * Boilerplates
 * Quick Setup Guide
 * Programmatic Usage
 * Pack Only in a Distributable Format
 * Debug
 * Community


ELECTRON-BUILDER ¶

A complete solution to package and build a ready for distribution Electron app
for macOS, Windows and Linux with “auto update” support out of the box.

 * NPM packages management:
   * Native application dependencies compilation (including Yarn support).
   * Development dependencies are never included. You don’t need to ignore them
     explicitly.
   * Two package.json structure is supported, but you are not forced to use it
     even if you have native production dependencies.
 * Code Signing on a CI server or development machine.
 * Auto Update ready application packaging.
 * Numerous target formats:
   * All platforms: 7z, zip, tar.xz, tar.lz, tar.gz, tar.bz2, dir (unpacked
     directory).
   * macOS: dmg, pkg, mas, mas-dev.
   * Linux: AppImage, snap, debian package (deb), rpm, freebsd, pacman, p5p,
     apk.
   * Windows: nsis (Installer), nsis-web (Web installer), portable (portable app
     without installation), AppX (Windows Store), Squirrel.Windows.
 * Publishing artifacts to GitHub Releases, Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces and
   Bintray.
 * Advanced building:
   * Pack in a distributable format already packaged app.
   * Separate build steps.
   * Build and publish in parallel, using hard links on CI server to reduce IO
     and disk space usage.
   * electron-compile support (compile for release-time on the fly on build).
 * Docker images to build Electron app for Linux or Windows on any platform.
 * Proton Native support.
 * Downloads all required tools files on demand automatically (e.g. to code sign
   windows application, to make AppX), no need to setup.

Question Answer “I want to configure electron-builder” See options “I have a
question” Open an issue or join the chat “I found a bug” Open an issue “I want
to support development” Donate


INSTALLATION¶

Yarn is strongly recommended instead of npm.

yarn add electron-builder --dev


NOTE FOR PNPM¶

In order to use with pnpm, you’ll need to adjust your .npmrc to use any one the
following approaches in order for your dependencies to be bundled correctly
(ref: #6389):

node-linker=hoisted


public-hoist-pattern=*


shamefully-hoist=true




Note: Setting shamefully-hoist to true is the same as setting
public-hoist-pattern to *.


NOTE FOR YARN 3¶

Yarn 3 use PnP by default, but electron-builder still need node-modules(ref:
yarnpkg/berry#4804). Add configuration in the .yarnrc.yaml as follows:

nodeLinker: "node-modules"


will declare to use node-modules instead of PnP.




BOILERPLATES¶

 * electron-webpack-quick-start — A bare minimum project structure to get
   started developing with electron-webpack. Recommended.
 * electron-react-boilerplate A boilerplate for scalable cross-platform desktop
   apps.
 * electron-react-redux-boilerplate A minimal boilerplate to get started with
   Electron, React and Redux.
 * electron-boilerplate A minimalistic yet comprehensive boilerplate
   application.
 * Vue CLI 3 plugin for Electron A Vue CLI 3 plugin for Electron with no
   required configuration.
 * electron-vue-vite A real simple Electron + Vue3 + Vite2 boilerplate.
 * vite-electron-builder Secure boilerplate for Electron app based on Vite.
   TypeScript + Vue/React/Angular/Svelte/Vanilla


QUICK SETUP GUIDE¶

electron-webpack-quick-start is a recommended way to create a new Electron
application.

 1. Specify the standard fields in the application package.json — name,
    description, version and author.

 2. Specify the build configuration in the package.json as follows:
    
    "build": {
      "appId": "your.id",
      "mac": {
        "category": "your.app.category.type"
      }
    }
    
    
    See all options. Option files to indicate which files should be packed in
    the final application, including the entry file, maybe required.
    
    

 3. Add icons.

 4. Add the scripts key to the development package.json:
    
    "scripts": {
      "pack": "electron-builder --dir",
      "dist": "electron-builder"
    }
    
    
    Then you can run yarn dist (to package in a distributable format (e.g. dmg,
    windows installer, deb package)) or yarn run pack (only generates the
    package directory without really packaging it. This is useful for testing
    purposes).
    
    
    
    To ensure your native dependencies always matched the electron version,
    simply add script "postinstall": "electron-builder install-app-deps" to your
    package.json.

 5. If you have native addons of your own that are part of the application (not
    as a dependency), set nodeGypRebuild to true.

Please note that everything is packaged into an asar archive by default.

For an app that will be shipped to production, you should sign your application.
See Where to buy code signing certificates.


PROGRAMMATIC USAGE¶

See node_modules/electron-builder/out/index.d.ts. Typings for TypeScript are
provided and also can be found here.

Code snippit provided below is also shown “in action” here as well.

"use strict"

const builder = require("electron-builder")
const Platform = builder.Platform

// Promise is returned
builder.build({
  targets: Platform.MAC.createTarget(),
  config: {
   "//": "build options, see https://goo.gl/QQXmcV"
  }
})
  .then(() => {
    // handle result
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    // handle error
  })





PACK ONLY IN A DISTRIBUTABLE FORMAT¶

You can use electron-builder only to pack your electron app in a AppImage,
Snaps, Debian package, NSIS, macOS installer component package (pkg) and other
distributable formats.

./node_modules/.bin/electron-builder --prepackaged <packed dir>


--projectDir (the path to project directory) option also can be useful.


DEBUG¶

Set the DEBUG environment variable to debug what electron-builder is doing:

DEBUG=electron-builder




FPM_DEBUG env to add more details about building linux targets (except snap and
appimage).

cmd

On Windows the environment variable is set using the set command.

set DEBUG=electron-builder




PowerShell

PowerShell uses different syntax to set environment variables.

$env:DEBUG=electron-builder





COMMUNITY¶

electron-builder on Zulip.

Next Command Line Interface (CLI)

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