electron-builder

What is electron-builder?

electron-builder is a complete solution to package and build a ready-for-distribution Electron app with “auto update” support out of the box. It supports numerous target formats and platforms, making it a versatile tool for Electron app developers.

What are electron-builder's main functionalities?

Building for Multiple Platforms

This feature allows you to build your Electron app for multiple platforms such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. The code sample demonstrates how to configure and initiate a build process for a Windows target.

const builder = require('electron-builder');

builder.build({
  targets: builder.Platform.WINDOWS.createTarget(),
  config: {
    appId: 'com.example.app',
    productName: 'ExampleApp',
    directories: {
      output: 'dist'
    }
  }
}).then(() => {
  console.log('Build complete!');
}).catch((error) => {
  console.error('Error during build:', error);
});

Auto Update

The auto-update feature allows your app to automatically check for updates and install them. The code sample shows how to set up the auto-updater to check for updates when the app is ready and handle update events.

const { autoUpdater } = require('electron-updater');

app.on('ready', () => {
  autoUpdater.checkForUpdatesAndNotify();
});

autoUpdater.on('update-available', () => {
  console.log('Update available.');
});

autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', () => {
  autoUpdater.quitAndInstall();
});

Custom Configuration

This feature allows you to customize the build configuration for your Electron app. The code sample demonstrates how to specify custom directories, files, and target formats for different platforms.

const builder = require('electron-builder');

builder.build({
  config: {
    appId: 'com.example.app',
    productName: 'ExampleApp',
    directories: {
      output: 'dist'
    },
    files: [
      'build/**/*'
    ],
    extraResources: [
      'assets/'
    ],
    win: {
      target: 'nsis'
    },
    mac: {
      target: 'dmg'
    }
  }
}).then(() => {
  console.log('Build complete!');
}).catch((error) => {
  console.error('Error during build:', error);
});

Other packages similar to electron-builder

electron-packager

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. Unlike electron-builder, it does not include auto-update support out of the box and is generally considered less feature-rich.

electron-forge

electron-forge is a complete tool for creating, publishing, and installing modern Electron applications. It provides a more integrated development experience compared to electron-builder, including project scaffolding, packaging, and publishing. However, it may not offer the same level of customization and flexibility in build configurations.

electron-updater

electron-updater is a standalone module that provides auto-update functionality for Electron apps. While electron-builder includes auto-update support as part of its feature set, electron-updater can be used independently or in conjunction with other packaging tools like electron-packager.

README

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.
• 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.
  • 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.
• Two package.json structure is supported, but you are not forced to use it even if you have native production dependencies.
• Build version management.
• Publishing artifacts to GitHub Releases, Amazon S3 and Bintray.
• 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).

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 donate”	Donate with Donorbox or Paypal

Real project example — onshape-desktop-shell.

Installation

Yarn is strongly recommended instead of npm.

yarn add electron-builder --dev

Platform specific 7zip-bin-* packages are optionalDependencies, which may require manual install if you have npm configured to not install optional deps by default.

Boilerplates

• 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.
• electron-vue A boilerplate for making electron applications built with vue.

Quick Setup Guide

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.

3. Create a directory build in the root of the project and save a background.png (macOS DMG background), icon.icns (macOS app icon) and icon.ico (Windows app icon) into it.

   The Linux icon set will be generated automatically based on the macOS icns file (or you can put them into the build/icons directory if you want to specify them yourself. The filename must contain the size (e.g. 32x32.png) of the icon).

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 pack (only generates the package directory without really packaging it. This is useful for testing purposes).

   To ensure your native dependencies are always matched 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), add "nodeGypRebuild": true to the build section of your development package.json.
   :bulb: Don't use npm (neither .npmrc) for configuring electron headers. Use node-gyp-rebuild bin instead.

6. Install the required system packages if you are not on macOS 10.12+.

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.

CLI Usage

Execute node_modules/.bin/electron-builder --help (node_modules/.bin/electron-builder build --help for `build subcommand) to get the actual CLI usage guide.

Building:
  --mac, -m, -o, --macos   Build for macOS, accepts target list (see
                           https://goo.gl/HAnnq8).                       [array]
  --linux, -l              Build for Linux, accepts target list (see
                           https://goo.gl/O80IL2)                        [array]
  --win, -w, --windows     Build for Windows, accepts target list (see
                           https://goo.gl/dL4i8i)                        [array]
  --x64                    Build for x64                               [boolean]
  --ia32                   Build for ia32                              [boolean]
  --armv7l                 Build for armv7l                            [boolean]
  --dir                    Build unpacked dir. Useful to test.         [boolean]
  --extraMetadata, --em    Deprecated. Use -c.extraMetadata.
  --prepackaged, --pd      The path to prepackaged app (to pack in a
                           distributable format)
  --projectDir, --project  The path to project directory. Defaults to current
                           working directory.
  --config, -c             The path to an electron-builder config. Defaults to
                           `electron-builder.yml` (or `json`, or `json5`), see
                           https://goo.gl/YFRJOM

Publishing:
  --publish, -p  Publish artifacts (to GitHub Releases), see
                 https://goo.gl/WMlr4n
                [choices: "onTag", "onTagOrDraft", "always", "never", undefined]
  --draft        Create a draft (unpublished) release                  [boolean]
  --prerelease   Identify the release as a prerelease                  [boolean]

Deprecated:
  --platform  The target platform (preferred to use --mac, --win or --linux)
           [choices: "mac", "win", "linux", "darwin", "win32", "all", undefined]
  --arch      The target arch (preferred to use --x64 or --ia32)
                                      [choices: "ia32", "x64", "all", undefined]

Other:
  --help     Show help                                                 [boolean]
  --version

Examples:
  electron-builder -mwl                     build for macOS, Windows and Linux
  electron-builder --linux deb tar.xz       build deb and tar.xz for Linux
  electron-builder --win --ia32             build for Windows ia32
  electron-builder --em.foo=bar             set package.json property `foo` to
                                            `bar`
  electron-builder                          configure unicode options for NSIS
  --config.nsis.unicode=false

Programmatic Usage

See node_modules/electron-builder/out/electron-builder.d.ts. Typings is supported.

"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/ZhRfla"
  }
})
  .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/build --prepackaged <packed dir>

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

Community

electron-builder on Slack (please use threads). Public archive without registration.

Further Reading

See the Wiki for more documentation.

Debug

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

DEBUG=electron-builder:* 

Changelog

19.7.3 (2017-06-22)

Bug Fixes

• AppImage: AppImage artifact name does not use artifactName template (a02fbd7), closes #1726

<a name="19.7.2"></a>