# Electron Packager Package your [Electron](https://electronjs.org) app into OS-specific bundles (`.app`, `.exe`, etc.) via JavaScript or the command line. [![CircleCI Build Status](https://circleci.com/gh/electron/electron-packager/tree/main.svg?style=svg)](https://circleci.com/gh/electron/electron-packager/tree/main) [![electron-nightly Canary](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/actions/workflows/canary.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/actions/workflows/canary.yml) [![Coverage Status](https://codecov.io/gh/electron/electron-packager/branch/main/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/electron/electron-packager) [![npm](https://badgen.net/npm/v/electron-packager)](https://npm.im/electron-packager) [![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/745037351163527189?color=blueviolet&logo=discord)](https://discord.com/invite/APGC3k5yaH) [Supported Platforms](#supported-platforms) | [Installation](#installation) | [Usage](#usage) | [API](https://electron.github.io/electron-packager/main/) | [Contributing](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) | [Support](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/SUPPORT.md) | [Related Apps/Libraries](#related) | [FAQ](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/docs/faq.md) | [Release Notes](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/NEWS.md) ---- ## About Electron Packager is a command line tool and Node.js library that bundles Electron-based application source code with a renamed Electron executable and supporting files into folders ready for distribution. For creating distributables like installers and Linux packages, consider using either [Electron Forge](https://github.com/electron/forge) (which uses Electron Packager internally), or one of the [related Electron tools](#distributable-creators), which utilizes Electron Packager-created folders as a basis. Note that packaged Electron applications can be relatively large. A zipped, minimal Electron application is approximately the same size as the zipped prebuilt binary for a given target platform, target arch, and [Electron version](https://github.com/electron/electron/releases) _(files named `electron-v${version}-${platform}-${arch}.zip`)_. ## Supported Platforms Electron Packager is known to run on the following **host** platforms: * Windows (32/64 bit) * macOS (formerly known as OS X) * Linux (x86/x86_64) It generates executables/bundles for the following **target** platforms: * Windows (also known as `win32`, for x86, x86_64, and arm64 architectures) * macOS (also known as `darwin`) / [Mac App Store](https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/mac-app-store-submission-guide/) (also known as `mas`)^* (for x86_64, arm64, and universal architectures) * Linux (for x86, x86_64, armv7l, arm64, and mips64el architectures) ^* *Note for macOS / Mac App Store target bundles: the `.app` bundle can only be signed when building on a host macOS platform.* ## Installation This module requires Node.js 14.17.5 or higher to run. ```sh npm install --save-dev electron-packager ``` It is **not** recommended to install `electron-packager` globally. ### Building Windows apps from non-Windows platforms Building an Electron app for the Windows target platform requires editing the `Electron.exe` file. Currently, Electron Packager uses [`node-rcedit`](https://github.com/electron/node-rcedit) to accomplish this. A Windows executable is bundled in that Node package and needs to be run in order for this functionality to work, so on non-Windows host platforms (not including WSL), [Wine](https://www.winehq.org/) 1.6 or later needs to be installed. On macOS, it is installable via [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/). ## Usage ### Via JavaScript JavaScript API usage can be found in the [API documentation](https://electron.github.io/electron-packager/main/modules/electronpackager.html). ### From the command line Running Electron Packager from the command line has this basic form: ``` npx electron-packager --platform= --arch= [optional flags...] ``` > **Note**: > `npx` can be substituted for `yarn` or `npm exec` depending on what package manager and > the version you have installed. This will: * Find or download the correct release of Electron * Use that version of Electron to create an app in `/--` *(this can be customized via an optional flag)* `--platform` and `--arch` can be omitted, in two cases: * If you specify `--all` instead, bundles for all valid combinations of target platforms/architectures will be created. * Otherwise, a single bundle for the host platform/architecture will be created. For an overview of the other optional flags, run `electron-packager --help` or see [usage.txt](https://github.com/electron/electron-packager/blob/main/usage.txt). For detailed descriptions, see the [API documentation](https://electron.github.io/electron-packager/main/modules/electronpackager.html). For flags that are structured as objects, you can pass each option as via dot notation as such: ```sh npx electron-packager --flag.foo="bar" # will pass in { flag: { foo: "bar"} } as an option to the Electron Packager API ``` If `appname` is omitted, this will use the name specified by "productName" or "name" in the nearest package.json. **Characters in the Electron app name which are not allowed in all target platforms' filenames (e.g., `/`), will be replaced by hyphens (`-`).** You should be able to launch the app on the platform you built for. If not, check your settings and try again. **Be careful** not to include `node_modules` you don't want into your final app. If you put them in the `devDependencies` section of `package.json`, by default none of the modules related to those dependencies will be copied in the app bundles. (This behavior can be turned off with the `prune: false` API option or `--no-prune` CLI flag.) In addition, folders like `.git` and `node_modules/.bin` will be ignored by default. You can use `--ignore` to ignore files and folders via a regular expression (*not* a [glob pattern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_%28programming%29)). Examples include `--ignore=\.gitignore` or `--ignore="\.git(ignore|modules)"`. #### Example 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: ``` foobar ├── package.json ├── index.html ├── […other files, like the app's LICENSE…] └── script.js ``` …and that the following is true: * `electron-packager` is installed locally * `productName` in `package.json` has been set to `Foo Bar` * The `electron` module is in the `devDependencies` section of `package.json`, and set to the exact version of `1.4.15`. * `npm install` for the `Foo Bar` app has been run at least once When one runs the following command for the first time in the `foobar` directory: ``` npx electron-packager . ``` `electron-packager` will do the following: * Use the current directory for the `sourcedir` * Infer the `appname` from the `productName` in `package.json` * Infer the `appVersion` from the `version` in `package.json` * Infer the `platform` and `arch` from the host, in this example, `darwin` platform and `x64` arch. * Download the darwin x64 build of Electron 1.4.15 (and cache the downloads in `~/.electron`) * Build the macOS `Foo Bar.app` * Place `Foo Bar.app` in `foobar/Foo Bar-darwin-x64/` (since an `out` directory was not specified, it used the current working directory) The file structure now looks like: ``` foobar ├── Foo Bar-darwin-x64 │ ├── Foo Bar.app │ │ └── […Mac app contents…] │ ├── LICENSE [the Electron license] │ └── version ├── […other application bundles, like "Foo Bar-win32-x64" (sans quotes)…] ├── package.json ├── index.html ├── […other files, like the app's LICENSE…] └── script.js ``` 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. ## Related - [Electron Forge](https://github.com/electron/forge) - creates, builds, and distributes modern Electron applications - [electron-packager-interactive](https://github.com/Urucas/electron-packager-interactive) - an interactive CLI for electron-packager - [grunt-electron](https://github.com/sindresorhus/grunt-electron) - grunt plugin for electron-packager ### Distributable Creators * [electron-installer-zip](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-zip) - creates symlink-compatible ZIP files Windows: * [electron-winstaller](https://github.com/electron/windows-installer) - Squirrel.Windows-based installer from the Electron maintainers group * [electron-windows-store](https://github.com/felixrieseberg/electron-windows-store) - creates an AppX package for the Windows Store * [electron-wix-msi](https://github.com/felixrieseberg/electron-wix-msi) - creates traditional MSI installers * [electron-installer-windows](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-windows) - alternative Squirrel.Windows-based installer macOS: * [electron-installer-dmg](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-dmg) - creates a DMG Linux: * [electron-installer-debian](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-debian) - creates a DEB file * [electron-installer-redhat](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-redhat) - creates an RPM * [electron-installer-flatpak](https://github.com/endlessm/electron-installer-flatpak) - creates a Flatpak file * [electron-installer-snap](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-snap) - creates a Snap file ### Plugins These Node modules utilize Electron Packager API hooks: - [electron-packager-languages](https://npm.im/electron-packager-languages) - sets the locales available to Electron when packaged, which is used by the Mac App Store, among other places - [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 - [@electron/rebuild](https://github.com/electron/rebuild) - rebuilds native Node.js modules against the packaged Electron version

			Stars	Issues	Version	Updated	Created	Size
	electron-builder		13,582	364	25.0.5	25 days ago	9 years ago
	electron-packager		147	46	17.1.2	a year ago	9 years ago

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