uncut kraken
My main process looks at the command line to see if there is an argument. This works great while doing development, but after packaging with electron-forge, it always acts as if none are specified. open -a <app-name> <argument> should pass the arguments to the app. The app starts, but behavior (and logging) indicates no argument was received.
Any help appreciated. If I can't pass arguments through, I'll have to abandon electron.
uncut kraken
It's easy to recreate this problem. Create an app foo using electron-forge as documented.
yarn add electron-log. Then add a log statement to the main process log(process.argv.join(' ')).
yarn start . -- -- package.json and you will see it logs package.json.
Then yarn package and open -a <app> package.json and it does not log the argument.
abstract lily
Do you package the thing you want to call arguments on inside the app.asar archive? If yes, this usually does not work. You have to tell the packager to create a extra directory outside app.asar or tell it to not use asar at all. The latter is an easy test to see if that is the issue
No idea what this electron log does but sounds like relative path issue again?
uncut kraken
I am not familiar with ".asar". yarn package makes a "foo.app" folder with apropriate things under it.
The packaging is being done with electron-forge.
My .app folder has no .asar files under it.
electron-log is the only way I've found to get logged output from within a packaged app. If there's a better way, I'm sure that would show the problem too
abstract lily
ah okay. it does not log the package.json content, it just logs the string "package.json"..
I am surprised mac has no asar file though.
https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/asar-archives
In windows the folder structure is like that:
electron-app-folder/resources/app.asar -> app.asar contains the whole source code created by you. it can be extracted to a folder, then you can look into it.
but maybe that doesnt matter for your problem
are you using this open -a command correctly?
https://superuser.com/a/116237
gentle plinth
mac does have asar
uncut kraken
mac does have asar
It's not showing up for me. I don't see anything in forge.config.js that would clearly apply.
abstract lily
there are 2 scenarios:
if electron-forge creates an app.asar depends on the settings applied to electron-packager in the forge config. you can add asar: true/false somewhere there.
hm, and I see that i added "asar: true" to my project, which may mean the default for electron-forge typescript webpack template is "asar: false". It is too long ago that i set that stuff up.
If that is the case, .asar is not the reason for your issues.
gentle plinth
.app is macos bundle
uncut kraken
Not having the .asar is minor to me
gentle plinth
like archive with files in it
uncut kraken
ah okay. it does not log the package.json content, it just logs the string "pack...
Well, I thought so. I was specifying a filename for the electron app to open. I may have assumed the filename would be passed as an argument. However (and more importantly), when I use --args it does come through.
uncut kraken
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/370427/what-does-macos-actually-do-when-open-a-file. This says the "filename" arguments are not passed as command line arguments. This is consistent with what I have seen, but it does suggestion a "hole" in the electron functionality. It's possible that there is already Node support for this and is something I should do in my main.js. I'll dig in a bit more, but being able to use "--args" is adequate for my needs.
Thanks for the help.
