Crash when running as a packaged app with electron-builder on macOS

[jwheare]

Uncaught Exception:
TypeError: Expected string, got undefined
    at module.exports.name ([...]IRCCloud.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/env-paths/index.js:49:9)
    at ElectronConfig.Conf ([...]IRCCloud.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/conf/index.js:29:9)
    at ElectronConfig ([...]IRCCloud.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/electron-config/index.js:11:3)
    at setupConfig ([...]IRCCloud.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/main.js:56:10)
    at Object.<anonymous> ([...]IRCCloud.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/main.js:60:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:541:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:550:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:456:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:415:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:407:3)

env-paths expects a String, but conf is passing in an undefined opts.projectName, because electron-config is setting opts.cwd directly so it isn't needed.

This fails because the package.json isn't bundled into the asar file when built, so pkg-up finds nothing.

Not sure which package this should be fixed in.

---

Also, a fresh npm install results in this version tree:

└─┬ electron-config@0.2.1
  └─┬ conf@0.11.1
    └── env-paths@0.2.0

conf depends on env-paths: ^0.2.0 which won't allow 0.3.0

[sindresorhus]

Should be fixed in conf. It should not call envPaths() when cwd is set. I'll fix tomorrow. Weird that I didn't hit it. I'm using electron-config in multiple apps packaged with electron-packager and asar.

[jwheare]

Actually, the package.json is getting included in the asar, but is still not being recognised.

I originally thought this was because we're using the dual package.json structure recommended by electron-builder, since our outer package.json has no name field set (it serves no purpose), but it's the inner package.json that gets bundled, so I'm a bit stumped.

Interesting to note that if there's a package.json outside the asar with a name field, the crash doesn't occur, but that's unlikely to happen if the .app gets copied to /Applications

[jwheare]

Ah, this could be because both main.js and package.json are in the root of the asar, but it looks like conf is starting the hunt from the parent dir.

[jwheare]

…hmm, unless that's the parent of the conf module, i.e. the node_modules dir.

[sindresorhus]

"Parent dir" being the directory of the parent (caller) module, which is your app.

[jwheare]

The parent is actually the electron-config module. Docs say:

module.parent

<Object> Module object
The module that first required this one

conf isn't required directly from our app.

I added some logging, and here's the parent dir it starts on, and the package.json it finds:

~/src/irccloud/desktop/dist/mac/IRCCloud.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/electron-config
~/src/irccloud/desktop/package.json (outer, no name)

vs when running in dev mode, unpacked:

~/src/irccloud/desktop/app/node_modules/electron-config
~/src/irccloud/desktop/app/node_modules/electron-config/package.json (invalid, but unused anyway)

So it looks like it's having trouble traversing the asar tree. It should be finding the inner package.json at:

~/src/irccloud/desktop/dist/mac/IRCCloud.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/package.json

Or unpacked at:

~/src/irccloud/desktop/app/package.json

[jwheare]

Perhaps your path-exists isn't taking advantage of electron's patched fs calls that allow asar traversal:

https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/docs/tutorial/application-packaging.md#using-asar-archives

[sindresorhus]

There's nothing for path-exists to take advantage of. Asar patches all fs calls.

[jwheare]

You're using fs.access(Sync) in path-exists, which isn't patched, but fs.exists(Sync) is:

https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/a0c5749ac1731afbbb7d042f1717597d6d68ea02/lib/common/asar.js#L342

[sindresorhus]

Ah, nice catch! That sounds like an Electron bug (You know what to do). Electron should be patching that fs.access{Sync,} too.

[jwheare]

Cheers! There's still the issue of the incorrect module.parent, shall I open a separate ticket?

[sindresorhus]

@jwheare On conf, sure. Not a big issue though, as most would use conf directly, and electron-config doesn't make use of that feature anyways.