@electron/get

What is @electron/get?

@electron/get is an npm package designed to facilitate the downloading of Electron binaries. It provides a simple API to fetch Electron versions, which can be useful for setting up Electron-based projects or managing different versions of Electron.

What are @electron/get's main functionalities?

Download a specific version of Electron

This feature allows you to download a specific version of Electron. The code sample demonstrates how to download Electron version 13.1.7 and log the path where it was downloaded.

const { download } = require('@electron/get');

(async () => {
  const zipPath = await download('v13.1.7');
  console.log(`Downloaded Electron v13.1.7 to ${zipPath}`);
})();

Specify a mirror for downloading

This feature allows you to specify a mirror URL for downloading Electron binaries. The code sample shows how to download Electron version 13.1.7 from a custom mirror.

const { download } = require('@electron/get');

(async () => {
  const zipPath = await download('v13.1.7', {
    mirrorOptions: {
      mirror: 'https://mirror.example.com/electron/'
    }
  });
  console.log(`Downloaded Electron v13.1.7 from mirror to ${zipPath}`);
})();

Get the URL for a specific Electron version

This feature allows you to get the download URL for a specific version of Electron without actually downloading it. The code sample demonstrates how to get the URL for Electron version 13.1.7.

const { getDownloadUrl } = require('@electron/get');

(async () => {
  const url = await getDownloadUrl('v13.1.7');
  console.log(`Download URL for Electron v13.1.7: ${url}`);
})();

Other packages similar to @electron/get

electron-download

electron-download is another package that helps in downloading Electron binaries. It is often used internally by other Electron-related tools. Compared to @electron/get, it offers similar functionalities but may not be as straightforward to use for some specific tasks.

electron-builder

electron-builder is a complete solution to package and build Electron applications. While its primary focus is on building and packaging, it also includes functionality to download Electron binaries. It is more feature-rich compared to @electron/get but may be overkill if you only need to download Electron binaries.

electron-prebuilt-compile

electron-prebuilt-compile is a package that provides prebuilt Electron binaries with support for custom compilation. It is useful for developers who need to compile Electron with specific settings. Compared to @electron/get, it offers more flexibility but requires more setup.

README

@electron/get

Download Electron release artifacts

Usage

For full API details, see the API documentation.

Simple: Downloading an Electron Binary ZIP

import { download } from '@electron/get';

// NB: Use this syntax within an async function, Node does not have support for
//     top-level await as of Node 12.
const zipFilePath = await download('4.0.4');

Advanced: Downloading a macOS Electron Symbol File

import { downloadArtifact } from '@electron/get';

// NB: Use this syntax within an async function, Node does not have support for
//     top-level await as of Node 12.
const zipFilePath = await downloadArtifact({
  version: '4.0.4',
  platform: 'darwin',
  artifactName: 'electron',
  artifactSuffix: 'symbols',
  arch: 'x64',
});

Specifying a mirror

To specify another location to download Electron assets from, the following options are available:

• mirrorOptions Object
  • mirror String (optional) - The base URL of the mirror to download from.
  • nightlyMirror String (optional) - The Electron nightly-specific mirror URL.
  • customDir String (optional) - The name of the directory to download from, often scoped by version number.
  • customFilename String (optional) - The name of the asset to download.
  • resolveAssetURL Function (optional) - A function allowing customization of the url used to download the asset.

Anatomy of a download URL, in terms of mirrorOptions:

https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/download/v4.0.4/electron-v4.0.4-linux-x64.zip
|                                                     |       |                           |
-------------------------------------------------------       -----------------------------
                        |                                                   |
              mirror / nightlyMirror                  |    |         customFilename
                                                       ------
                                                         ||
                                                      customDir

Example:

import { download } from '@electron/get';

const zipFilePath = await download('4.0.4', {
  mirrorOptions: {
    mirror: 'https://mirror.example.com/electron/',
    customDir: 'custom',
    customFilename: 'unofficial-electron-linux.zip'
  }
});
// Will download from https://mirror.example.com/electron/custom/unofficial-electron-linux.zip

const nightlyZipFilePath = await download('8.0.0-nightly.20190901', {
  mirrorOptions: {
    nightlyMirror: 'https://nightly.example.com/',
    customDir: 'nightlies',
    customFilename: 'nightly-linux.zip'
  }
});
// Will download from https://nightly.example.com/nightlies/nightly-linux.zip

customDir can have the placeholder {{ version }}, which will be replaced by the version specified (without the leading v). For example:

const zipFilePath = await download('4.0.4', {
  mirrorOptions: {
    mirror: 'https://mirror.example.com/electron/',
    customDir: 'version-{{ version }}',
    platform: 'linux',
    arch: 'x64'
  }
});
// Will download from https://mirror.example.com/electron/version-4.0.4/electron-v4.0.4-linux-x64.zip

Using environment variables for mirror options

Mirror options can also be specified via the following environment variables:

• ELECTRON_CUSTOM_DIR - Specifies the custom directory to download from.
• ELECTRON_CUSTOM_FILENAME - Specifies the custom file name to download.
• ELECTRON_MIRROR - Specifies the URL of the server to download from if the version is not a nightly version.
• ELECTRON_NIGHTLY_MIRROR - Specifies the URL of the server to download from if the version is a nightly version.

Overriding the version downloaded

The version downloaded can be overriden by setting the ELECTRON_CUSTOM_VERSION environment variable. Setting this environment variable will override the version passed in to download or downloadArtifact.

How It Works

This module downloads Electron to a known place on your system and caches it so that future requests for that asset can be returned instantly. The cache locations are:

• Linux: $XDG_CACHE_HOME or ~/.cache/electron/
• MacOS: ~/Library/Caches/electron/
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%/electron/Cache or ~/AppData/Local/electron/Cache/

By default, the module uses got as the downloader. As a result, you can use the same options via downloadOptions.

Progress Bar

By default, a progress bar is shown when downloading an artifact for more than 30 seconds. To disable, set the ELECTRON_GET_NO_PROGRESS environment variable to any non-empty value, or set quiet to true in downloadOptions. If you need to monitor progress yourself via the API, set getProgressCallback in downloadOptions, which has the same function signature as got's downloadProgress event callback.

Proxies

Downstream packages should utilize the initializeProxy function to add HTTP(S) proxy support. If the environment variable ELECTRON_GET_USE_PROXY is set, it is called automatically.

Debug

debug is used to display logs and messages. Set the DEBUG=@electron/get* environment variable to log additional debug information from this module.