@electron/get

@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 the built-in Fetch API as the downloader. As a result, you can pass RequestInit 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 receives a Progress object with transferred, total, and percent properties.

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.

Similar packages

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.