`electron-packager` is not bundling the Node modules listed in dependencies

I’ve been struggling with this for a week now so I thought I’d reach out to the amazing SO community for help. I’ve got an Electron project that needs to produce an OS X application (and Windows eventually). Initially we were using webpack to bundle everything (electron and front-end code) but, with the addition of some features that utilize ffi, this was no longer an option. After switching to using gulp to transpile and uglify the electron code, the app was working in development.

The problem I’m having is, when using electron-packager, none of my node_modules are being bundled during the build. According to the docs, electron-packager should bundle anything listed in the dependencies section of package.json. I built a simple proof-of-concept app to simplify things and modules still aren’t being bundled for the electron code. This new, simplified project is just trying to include bunyan (this also fails for ffi) but, after building, the app complains that the bunyan module cannot be found. Can someone help? Am I missing something small but important? Here’s some detail to the project:

Environment Details

• OSX Version: 10.11.6 (15G1108)
• Node Version: 5.2.0 (using nvm)
• npm version: 3.3.12

package.json

    {
        "name": "build-with-native-modules",
        "version": "1.0.0",
        "description": "A test for Electron packages with native Node modules.",
        "main": "el/main.js",
        "scripts": {
          "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
          "clean": "./node_modules/.bin/rimraf build",
          "start": "npm run clean && gulp && ./node_modules/.bin/electron ./build/dist/el/main.js",
          "electron:rebuild": "./node_modules/.bin/electron-rebuild",
          "build:osx": "gulp build:osx",
          "cinstall": "rm -Rf ./node_modules && npm cache clean && npm i && npm run electron:rebuild"
        },
        "postinstall": "install-app-deps",
        "author": "Zachary Abresch <[e-mail]>",
        "license": "MIT",
        "dependencies": {
          "bunyan": "^1.8.4",
          "jquery": "^3.1.1"
        },
        "devDependencies": {
          "babel-cli": "^6.18.0",
          "babel-core": "^6.18.2",
          "babel-eslint": "^7.1.0",
          "babel-loader": "^6.2.7",
          "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.18.0",
          "babel-preset-stage-0": "^6.16.0",
          "babel-register": "^6.18.0",
          "electron": "1.4.6",
          "electron-packager": "^8.2.0",
          "electron-rebuild": "^1.3.0",
          "eslint": "^3.9.1",
          "eslint-config-airbnb": "^13.0.0",
          "eslint-plugin-import": "^2.2.0",
          "eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y": "^2.2.3",
          "eslint-plugin-react": "^6.6.0",
          "gulp": "^3.9.1",
          "gulp-babel": "^6.1.2",
          "gulp-util": "^3.0.7",
          "rimraf": "^2.5.4",
          "webpack": "^1.13.3",
          "webpack-dev-server": "^1.16.2"
        }
      }

gulpfile.babel.js

      import gulp from 'gulp';
      import babel from 'gulp-babel';
      import gutil from 'gulp-util';
      import webpack from 'webpack';
      import packager from 'electron-packager';
    
      import webpackConfig from './webpack.config.babel';
      import pack from './package.json';
    
      gulp.task('electron:babel', () => {
        gulp.src('src/el/**/*.js', { base: 'src' })
        .pipe(babel())
        .pipe(gulp.dest('build/dist'));
      });
    
      gulp.task('move:html', () => {
        gulp.src('src/ui/**/*.html', { base: 'src' })
        .pipe(gulp.dest('build/dist'));
      });
    
      gulp.task('move:package', () => {
        gulp.src('package.json', { base: './' })
          .pipe(gulp.dest('build/dist'));
      });
    
      gulp.task('ui:webpack', (done) => {
        const myConfig = Object.create(webpackConfig);
    
        webpack(myConfig, (err, stats) => {
          if (err) throw new gutil.PluginError('ui:webpack', err);
          gutil.log('[ui:webpack]', stats.toString({ colors: true }));
          done();
        });
      });
    
      const osxBuildOptions = {
        arch: 'x64',
        'app-copyright': '8x8, Inc.',
        'app-version': '1.0.0',
        'build-version': '1.0.0',
        dir: './build/dist',
        name: pack.name,
        out: './build/bundle',
        overwrite: true,
        version: pack.devDependencies.electron,
      };
    
      gulp.task('build:osx',
        ['move:package', 'electron:babel', 'ui:webpack', 'move:html'],
      (done) => {
        packager(osxBuildOptions, (err, appPath) => {
          if (err) throw new gutil.PluginError('electron-packager', err);
          gutil.log(`[build:osx] App built in: ${appPath}`);
          done();
        });
      });
    
      gulp.task('default', ['electron:babel', 'ui:webpack', 'move:html']);

webpack.config.babel.js

    import path from 'path';
    
      module.exports = {
        target: 'electron',
        entry: './src/ui/renderer.js',
        output: {
          path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'build/dist/ui'),
          filename: 'ui.bundle.js',
        },
        module: {
          loaders: [
            {
              loader: 'babel-loader',
              include: [
                path.resolve(__dirname, 'src/ui'),
              ],
              test: /\.js/,
            },
          ],
        },
      };

I’m considering trying out electron-builder but I really feel like this should be working. If anyone has any info or insight I’d greatly appreciate it. If you need any additional information, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

Console output when you run electron-packager with the environment variable DEBUG=electron-packager. Please include the stack trace if one exists.

$> DEBUG=electron-packager npm run build:osx

> build-with-native-modules@1.0.0 build:osx /Users/zabresch/Documents/8x8/scratching/build-with-native-modules
> gulp build:osx

[10:33:26] Requiring external module babel-register
[10:33:27] Using gulpfile ~/Documents/8x8/scratching/build-with-native-modules/gulpfile.babel.js
[10:33:27] Starting 'move:package'...
[10:33:27] Finished 'move:package' after 8.18 ms
[10:33:27] Starting 'electron:babel'...
[10:33:27] Finished 'electron:babel' after 3.8 ms
[10:33:27] Starting 'ui:webpack'...
[10:33:27] Starting 'move:html'...
[10:33:27] Finished 'move:html' after 924 μs
[10:33:27] [ui:webpack] Hash: b17668fbc87d8c088dcc
Version: webpack 1.13.3
Time: 398ms
       Asset    Size  Chunks             Chunk Names
ui.bundle.js  278 kB       0  [emitted]  main
chunk    {0} ui.bundle.js (main) 268 kB [rendered]
    [0] ./src/ui/renderer.js 449 bytes {0} [built]
    [1] ./~/jquery/dist/jquery.js 267 kB {0} [built]
    [2] external "electron" 42 bytes {0} [not cacheable]
[10:33:27] Finished 'ui:webpack' after 418 ms
[10:33:27] Starting 'build:osx'...
  electron-packager Electron Packager 8.2.0 +0ms
  electron-packager Node v5.2.0 +1ms
  electron-packager Host Operating system: darwin (x64) +0ms
  electron-packager Packager Options: {"arch":"x64","app-copyright":"8x8, Inc.","app-version":"1.0.0","build-version":"1.0.0","dir":"./build/dist","name":"build-with-native-modules","out":"./build/bundle","overwrite":true,"version":"1.4.6"} +0ms
  electron-packager Target Platforms: darwin +0ms
  electron-packager Target Architectures: x64 +0ms
  electron-packager Application name: build-with-native-modules +1ms
  electron-packager Target Electron version: 1.4.6 +0ms
  electron-packager Ignored path regular expressions: [ '/node_modules/electron($|/)',
  '/node_modules/electron-prebuilt($|/)',
  '/node_modules/electron-packager($|/)',
  '/\\.git($|/)',
  '/node_modules/\\.bin($|/)',
  '\\.o(bj)?$' ] +0ms
  electron-packager Downloading Electron with options {"platform":"darwin","arch":"x64","version":"1.4.6"} +6ms
Packaging app for platform darwin x64 using electron v1.4.6
  electron-packager Creating /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64-template +240ms
  electron-packager Extracting /Users/zabresch/.electron/electron-v1.4.6-darwin-x64.zip to /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64-template +0ms
  electron-packager Initializing app in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64 from /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64-template template +1s
  electron-packager Ignored paths based on the out param: [ '/Users/zabresch/Documents/8x8/scratching/build-with-native-modules/build/bundle' ] +2ms
  electron-packager Running npm prune --production +9ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron to build-with-native-modules in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/MacOS +647ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper to build-with-native-modules Helper in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper.app/Contents/MacOS +0ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper.app to build-with-native-modules Helper.app in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks +1ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper EH to build-with-native-modules Helper EH in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper EH.app/Contents/MacOS +0ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper EH.app to build-with-native-modules Helper EH.app in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks +1ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper NP to build-with-native-modules Helper NP in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper NP.app/Contents/MacOS +0ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper NP.app to build-with-native-modules Helper NP.app in /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks +0ms
  electron-packager Moving /var/folders/zx/m4gltph949j450_vsv_pt4mjzphjyg/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64 to build/bundle/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64 +1ms
[10:33:29] [build:osx] App built in: build/bundle/build-with-native-modules-darwin-x64
[10:33:29] Finished 'build:osx' after 2.02 s

[neil-mcglennon-sp]

I am seeing the same with electron-packager. I am not using yarn or gulp or any other build tool. When I run electron-packager . --overwrite --platform=darwin --arch=x64 --icon=assets/icons/mac/icon.icns --overwrite=true --out=release-builds to build and run the build, I get the same error about things not in the package. However when I run electron . it runs fine in development. I’ve looked in the .app package contents from the generated stuff and I don’t see everything in node_modules.

[martijnthe]

@malept I’m also running into this. It seems like electron-packager doesn’t play well with npm packages that have been hoisted to a node_modules parent folder. Is that by design?

We’re using yarn workspaces and npm packages get hoisted automatically to the root of the mono repo.