Starting Electron with JS file as argument - electron

Question

When I install the electron quick start and run
node_modules/.bin/electron --help
it tells me:
A path to an Electron app may be specified. It must be one of the following:
- index.js file.
- Folder containing a package.json file.
- Folder containing an index.js file.
- .html/.htm file.
- http://, https://, or file:// URL.
Running
node_modules/.bin/electron .
(i.e. the option "Folder containing a package.json file") works alright. package.json points to main.js and looks as follows:
{
"name": "electron-quick-start",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "A minimal Electron application",
"main": "main.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "electron ."
},
"repository": "https://github.com/electron/electron-quick-start",
"keywords": [
"Electron",
"quick",
"start",
"tutorial",
"demo"
],
"author": "GitHub",
"license": "CC0-1.0",
"devDependencies": {
"electron": "^4.1.4"
}
}
I'd assume that running this:
node_modules/.bin/electron main.js
should work as well, but it does not – it just shows the Electron "dummy" screen.
How can I specify on the command line which JavaScript to run?

Answer 1

Turns out the JavaScript is executed alright – the problem is how the path to the main HTML file is resolved. Solution: Replace:
mainWindow.loadFile('index.html')
with:
const arg = process.argv[1] // better command line parsing might be needed
const dir = fs.lstatSync(arg).isDirectory() ? arg : path.resolve(arg, '..')
mainWindow.loadFile(path.resolve(dir, 'index.html'))