# Electron Packager
Package your [Electron](http://electron.atom.io) app into OS-specific bundles (`.app`, `.exe`, etc.) via JavaScript or the command line.
[](https://travis-ci.org/electron-userland/electron-packager)
[](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/electron-userland/electron-packager)
[](https://codecov.io/gh/electron-userland/electron-packager)
[](https://dependencyci.com/github/electron-userland/electron-packager)
[Supported Platforms](#supported-platforms) |
[Installation](#installation) |
[Usage](#usage) |
[API](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/docs/api.md) |
[Contributing](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md) |
[Support](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/SUPPORT.md) |
[Related Apps/Libraries](#related) |
[FAQ](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/docs/faq.md) |
[Release Notes](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/NEWS.md)
----
## About
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.
For creating distributables like installers and Linux packages, consider using either [Electron
Forge](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge) (which uses Electron Packager
internally), or one of the [related Electron tools](#distributable-creators), which utilizes
Electron Packager-created folders as a basis.
Note that packaged Electron applications can be relatively large. A zipped, minimal Electron
application is approximately the same size as the zipped prebuilt binary for a given target
platform, target arch, and [Electron version](https://github.com/electron/electron/releases)
_(files named `electron-v${version}-${platform}-${arch}.zip`)_.
### Electron Packager is an [OPEN Open Source Project](http://openopensource.org/)
Individuals making significant and valuable contributions are given commit-access to the project to contribute as they see fit. This project is more like an open wiki than a standard guarded open source project.
See [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md) and [openopensource.org](http://openopensource.org/) for more details.
## Supported Platforms
Electron Packager is known to run on the following **host** platforms:
* Windows (32/64 bit)
* OS X (also known as macOS)
* Linux (x86/x86_64)
It generates executables/bundles for the following **target** platforms:
* Windows (also known as `win32`, for both 32/64 bit)
* OS X (also known as `darwin`) / [Mac App Store](http://electron.atom.io/docs/v0.36.0/tutorial/mac-app-store-submission-guide/) (also known as `mas`)*
* Linux (for x86, x86_64, armv7l, arm64, and mips64el architectures)
* *Note for OS X / MAS target bundles: the `.app` bundle can only be signed when building on a host OS X platform.*
## Installation
This module requires Node.js 4.0 or higher to run.
```sh
# for use in npm scripts
npm install electron-packager --save-dev
# for use from cli
npm install electron-packager -g
```
### Building Windows apps from non-Windows platforms
Building an Electron app for the Windows target platform requires editing the `Electron.exe` file.
Currently, Electron Packager uses [node-rcedit](https://github.com/atom/node-rcedit) to accomplish
this. A Windows executable is bundled in that Node package and needs to be run in order for this
functionality to work, so on non-Windows host platforms, [Wine](https://www.winehq.org/) 1.6 or
later needs to be installed. On OS X, it is installable via [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
## Usage
JavaScript API usage can be found in the [API documentation](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/docs/api.md).
### From the Command Line
Running electron-packager from the command line has this basic form:
```
electron-packager --platform= --arch= [optional flags...]
```
This will:
- Find or download the correct release of Electron
- Use that version of Electron to create a app in `/--` *(this can be customized via an optional flag)*
`--platform` and `--arch` can be omitted, in two cases:
* If you specify `--all` instead, bundles for all valid combinations of target
platforms/architectures will be created.
* Otherwise, a single bundle for the host platform/architecture will be created.
For an overview of the other optional flags, run `electron-packager --help` or see
[usage.txt](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/usage.txt). For
detailed descriptions, see the [API documentation](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/blob/master/docs/api.md).
If `appname` is omitted, this will use the name specified by "productName" or "name" in the nearest package.json.
**Characters in the Electron app name which are not allowed in all target platforms' filenames
(e.g., `/`), will be replaced by hyphens (`-`).**
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. If you put them in
the `devDependencies` section of `package.json`, by default none of the modules related to those
dependencies will be copied in the app bundles. (This behavior can be turned off with the
`--no-prune` flag.) In addition, folders like `.git` and `node_modules/.bin` will be ignored by
default. You can use `--ignore` to ignore files and folders via a regular expression (*not* a
[glob pattern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_%28programming%29)). Examples include
`--ignore=\.gitignore` or `--ignore="\.git(ignore|modules)"`.
#### Example
Let's assume that you have made an app based on the [electron-quick-start](https://github.com/electron/electron-quick-start) repository on a OS X host platform with the following file structure:
```
foobar
├── package.json
├── index.html
├── […other files, like LICENSE…]
└── script.js
```
…and that the following is true:
* `electron-packager` is installed globally
* `productName` in `package.json` has been set to `Foo Bar`
* The `electron` module is in the `devDependencies` section of `package.json`, and set to the exact version of `1.4.15`.
* `npm install` for the `Foo Bar` app has been run at least once
When one runs the following command for the first time in the `foobar` directory:
```
electron-packager .
```
`electron-packager` will do the following:
* Use the current directory for the `sourcedir`
* Infer the `appname` from the `productName` in `package.json`
* Infer the `appVersion` from the `version` in `package.json`
* Infer the `platform` and `arch` from the host, in this example, `darwin` platform and `x64` arch.
* Download the darwin x64 build of Electron 1.4.15 (and cache the downloads in `~/.electron`)
* Build the OS X `Foo Bar.app`
* Place `Foo Bar.app` in `foobar/Foo Bar-darwin-x64/` (since an `out` directory was not specified, it used the current working directory)
The file structure now looks like:
```
foobar
├── Foo Bar-darwin-x64
│ ├── Foo Bar.app
│ │ └── […Mac app contents…]
│ ├── LICENSE
│ └── version
├── […other application bundles, like "Foo Bar-win32-x64" (sans quotes)…]
├── package.json
├── index.html
├── […other files, like LICENSE…]
└── script.js
```
The `Foo Bar.app` folder generated can be executed by a system running OS X, which will start the packaged Electron app. This is also true of the Windows x64 build on a system running a new enough version of Windows for a 64-bit system (via `Foo Bar-win32-x64/Foo Bar.exe`), and so on.
## Related
- [Electron Forge](https://www.npmjs.com/package/electron-forge) - creates, builds, and distributes modern Electron applications
- [electron-packager-interactive](https://github.com/Urucas/electron-packager-interactive) - an interactive CLI for electron-packager
- [grunt-electron](https://github.com/sindresorhus/grunt-electron) - grunt plugin for electron-packager
### Distributable Creators
* [electron-installer-zip](https://github.com/mongodb-js/electron-installer-zip) - creates symlink-compatible ZIP files
Windows:
* [electron-winstaller](https://github.com/electron/windows-installer) - Squirrel.Windows-based
installer
* [electron-windows-store](https://github.com/felixrieseberg/electron-windows-store) - creates an
AppX package for the Windows Store
* [electron-wix-msi](https://github.com/felixrieseberg/electron-wix-msi) - creates traditional MSI
installers
OS X:
* [electron-installer-dmg](https://github.com/mongodb-js/electron-installer-dmg) - creates a DMG
Linux:
* [electron-installer-debian](https://github.com/unindented/electron-installer-debian) - creates a DEB file
* [electron-installer-redhat](https://github.com/unindented/electron-installer-redhat) - creates an RPM
* [electron-installer-flatpak](https://github.com/endlessm/electron-installer-flatpak) - creates a Flatpak file
* [electron-installer-snap](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-snap) - creates a Snap file
### Plugins
These Node modules utilize Electron Packager API hooks:
- [electron-packager-languages](https://npm.im/electron-packager-languages) - set the locales
available to Electron when packaged, which is used by the Mac App Store, among other places
- [electron-packager-plugin-non-proprietary-codecs-ffmpeg](https://www.npmjs.com/package/electron-packager-plugin-non-proprietary-codecs-ffmpeg) - replaces the normal version of FFmpeg in Electron with a version without proprietary codecs
- [electron-rebuild](https://github.com/electron/electron-rebuild) - rebuild native Node.js modules
against the packaged Electron version