How to re-use platform parameter when building an electron application using `electron-forge make --platform=win32`? - circleci

Question

We are building an electron desktop application for macos, linux, and windows.
Here is our electron-forge config:
// forge.config.js
const os = require('os')
const package = require('./package.json')
function getExtraResource() {
const p = os.platform()
switch (p) {
case 'darwin':
return ['./static/bin/pasteld-mac']
case 'linux':
return ['./static/bin/pasteld-linux']
case 'win32':
return ['./static/bin/pasteld-win.exe']
default:
throw new Error(
'forge.config.js error: your OS is not supported. Supported OS are: darwin, linux, win32',
)
}
}
function getIcon() {
const p = os.platform()
switch (p) {
case 'darwin':
return './static/icons/icon.icns'
case 'linux':
return './static/icons/icon.png'
case 'win32':
return './static/icons/icon.ico'
default:
throw new Error(
'forge.config.js error: your OS is not supported. Supported OS are: darwin, linux, win32',
)
}
}
module.exports = {
packagerConfig: {
name: package.productName,
executableName: package.name,
icon: getIcon(),
asar: true,
extraResource: getExtraResource(),
protocols: [
{
protocol: package.name,
name: package.name,
schemes: [package.protocolSchemes.native],
},
],
},
makers: [
{
name: '#electron-forge/maker-squirrel',
config: {
exe: `${package.name}.exe`,
setupIcon: './static/icons/icon.ico',
loadingGif: './static/icons/icon.gif',
iconUrl:
'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pastelnetwork/pastel-electron-wallet/master/static/icons/icon.ico',
title: package.productName,
setupExe: `${package.productName} Setup - v${package.version}.exe`,
skipUpdateIcon: true,
},
},
{
name: '#electron-forge/maker-dmg',
config: {
icon: './static/icons/icon.icns',
name: package.productName,
},
},
{
name: '#electron-forge/maker-deb',
config: {
options: {
icon: './static/icons/icon.png',
},
},
},
],
plugins: [
[
'#electron-forge/plugin-webpack',
{
mainConfig: './webpack.main.config.js',
renderer: {
config: './webpack.renderer.config.js',
entryPoints: [
{
html: './src/index.html',
js: './src/renderer.tsx',
name: 'main_window',
},
],
},
},
],
],
}
As you can see in the above file, getExtraResource() detects the os type and pick the right executable file based on it. In other words, running run make on a proper platform is all we need to build the application.
However, we are now going to build the windows installer on linux wine image, more specifically using electronuserland/builder:wine-mono image.
Everything is working as expected so far, except one thing - we still need to add a step to the switch clause in the getExtraResource() to pick the windows executable in the builder image instead of linux executable(note that the builder image is still a linux image!).
It will be something like this:
# forge.config.js
//...
function getExtraResource() {
const p = os.platform()
switch (p) {
case 'darwin':
return ['./static/bin/pasteld-mac']
case 'linux':
if (build_arg === 'win32') {
return ['./static/bin/pasteld-win.exe']
}
return ['./static/bin/pasteld-linux']
case 'win32':
return ['./static/bin/pasteld-win.exe']
default:
throw new Error(
'forge.config.js error: your OS is not supported. Supported OS are: darwin, linux, win32',
)
}
}
//...
How can I get the build_arg in the above file?
Build command is yarn make --platform=win32 in the wine builder image.
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Electron Forge supports hooks and some of them get passed the platform and arch which you could save globally.
Currently the earliest hook that gets passed these is packageAfterCopy which might be called too late for your usage but worth a try:
plugins: [
// ...
],
hooks: {
packageAfterCopy: async (
forgeConfig,
buildPath,
electronVersion,
platform,
arch
) => {
console.log(buildPath, electronVersion, platform, arch);
},
}
}
I've also opened a PR to add these parameters to the generateAssets hook.

Answer 2

We could resolve this by using process.argv.
More specifically, we run this command to build windows installer in linux container:
yarn make --platform=win32
And the string win32 could be caught by process.argv[3] anywhere.
See the detailed implementation here.
Please advice if you have a better solution!