lzpfmh / electron-packager

package and distribute your electron app in OS executables (.app, .exe etc) via JS or CLI

electron-packager

Package your electron app in OS executables (.app, .exe, etc) via JS or CLI. Supports building Windows, Linux or Mac executables.

formerly known as atom-shell-packager

installation

# for use in npm scripts
npm i electron-packager --save-dev

# for use from cli
npm i electron-packager -g

usage

Usage: electron-packager <sourcedir> <appname> --platform=<platform> --arch=<arch> --version=<version>

Required options

platform           all, or one or more of: linux, win32, darwin (comma-delimited if multiple)
arch               all, ia32, x64
version            see https://github.com/atom/electron/releases

Example            electron-packager ./ FooBar --platform=darwin --arch=x64 --version=0.25.1

Optional options

all                equivalent to --platform=all --arch=all
out                the dir to put the app into at the end. defaults to current working dir
icon               the icon file to use as the icon for the app. Note: Format depends on OS.
app-bundle-id      bundle identifier to use in the app plist
app-version        release version to set for the app
build-version      build version to set for the app (OS X only)
cache              directory of cached electron downloads. Defaults to '$HOME/.electron'
helper-bundle-id   bundle identifier to use in the app helper plist
ignore             do not copy files into App whose filenames regex .match this string
prune              runs `npm prune --production` on the app
overwrite          if output directory for a platform already exists, replaces it rather than skipping it
asar               packages the source code within your app into an archive
asar-unpack        unpacks the files to app.asar.unpacked directory whose filenames regex .match this string
sign               should contain the identity to be used when running `codesign` (OS X only)
version-string     should contain a hash of the application metadata to be embedded into the executable (Windows only).
                   These can be specified on the command line via dot notation,
                   e.g. --version-string.CompanyName="Company Inc." --version-string.ProductName="Product"
                   Keys supported:
                   - CompanyName
                   - LegalCopyright
                   - FileDescription
                   - OriginalFilename
                   - FileVersion
                   - ProductVersion
                   - ProductName
                   - InternalName

This will:

• Find or download the correct release of Electron
• Use that version of electron to create a app in <out>/<appname>-<platform>-<arch>

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. electron-packager, electron-prebuilt and .git will be ignored by default. You can use --ignore to ignore files and folders, e.g. --ignore=node_modules/electron-packager or --ignore="node_modules/(electron-packager|electron-prebuilt)".

API

var packager = require('electron-packager')
packager(opts, function done (err, appPath) { })

packager(opts, callback)

opts

Required dir - String The source directory.

name - String The application name.

platform - String Allowed values: linux, win32, darwin, all Not required if all is used. Arbitrary combinations of individual platforms are also supported via a comma-delimited string or array of strings.

arch - String Allowed values: ia32, x64, all Not required if all is used.

version - String Electron version (without the 'v'). See https://github.com/atom/electron/releases

Optional all - Boolean Shortcut for --arch=all --platform=all

out - String

icon - String

Currently you must look for conversion tools in order to supply an icon in the format required by the platform:

• OS X: .icns
• Windows: .ico

For Linux builds, this option is not required, as the dock/window list icon is set via the icon option in the BrowserWindow contructor. Setting the icon in the file manager is not currently supported.

If the file extension is omitted, it is auto-completed to the correct extension based on the platform, including when --platform=all is in effect.

app-bundle-id - String

app-version - String

cache - String

helper-bundle-id - String

ignore - RegExp

prune - Boolean

overwrite - Boolean

asar - Boolean

asar-unpack - String

sign - String

version-string - Object Object hash of application metadata to embed into the executable (Windows only):

• CompanyName
• LegalCopyright
• FileDescription
• OriginalFilename
• FileVersion
• ProductVersion
• ProductName
• InternalName

callback

err - Error Contains errors if any.

appPath - String Path to the newly created application.

Building windows apps from non-windows platforms

If you run this on windows and you want to set the icon for your app using the --icon option, it requires running a thing called rcedit.exe (via this), which means you will need to install wine and have it available in your path. To do this on Mac OS you can brew install wine.

related

• grunt-electron - grunt plugin for electron-packager
• electron-packager-interactive - an interactive cli for electron-packager