Is babel supported?

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• I agree to follow the code of conduct that this project follows, as appropriate.
• I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.

I am currently using babel in my project, including ES6 features not supported by the current version of node such as import/export. I do this by using the babel-register module when I run the app:

electron --require babel-register ./main.js

This doesn’t work when using electron-packager packager though and I get syntax errors related to import when trying to run the executable:

SyntaxError: Unexpected token import
    at Object.exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:78:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:543:28)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/me/Desktop/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question.app/Contents/Resources/electron.asar/browser/init.js:171:8)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/me/Desktop/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question.app/Contents/Resources/electron.asar/browser/init.js:173:3)
    at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)

Is there anyway to tell electron-packager to run electron with the --require babel-register flag?

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

> electron-packager-babel-question@1.0.0 package /Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question
> electron-packager .

  electron-packager Electron Packager 8.7.2 +0ms
  electron-packager Node v6.11.0 +3ms
  electron-packager Host Operating system: darwin (x64) +1ms
  electron-packager Packager Options: {"_":["."],"all":false,"deref-symlinks":true,"download":{"strictSSL":true},"overwrite":false,"prune":true,"quiet":false,"dir":".","protocols":[]} +1ms
  electron-packager Target Platforms: darwin +0ms
  electron-packager Target Architectures: x64 +0ms
  electron-packager Inferring application name from name in /Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/package.json +16ms
  electron-packager Inferring appVersion from version in /Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/package.json +0ms
  electron-packager Inferring target Electron version from electron in /Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/package.json +4ms
  electron-packager Application name: electron-packager-babel-question +0ms
  electron-packager Target Electron version: 1.6.12 +0ms
  electron-packager Ignored path regular expressions: [ '/node_modules/electron($|/)',
  '/node_modules/electron-prebuilt(-compile)?($|/)',
  '/node_modules/electron-packager($|/)',
  '/\\.git($|/)',
  '/node_modules/\\.bin($|/)',
  '\\.o(bj)?$' ] +1ms
  electron-packager Downloading Electron with options {"strictSSL":true,"platform":"darwin","arch":"x64","version":"1.6.12"} +7ms
Packaging app for platform darwin x64 using electron v1.6.12
  electron-packager Creating /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64-template +291ms
  electron-packager Extracting /Users/dave/.electron/electron-v1.6.12-darwin-x64.zip to /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64-template +0ms
  electron-packager Initializing app in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64 from /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64-template template +2s
  electron-packager Ignored paths based on the out param: [ '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-ia32',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-armv7l',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-linux-ia32',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-linux-x64',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-linux-armv7l',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-mas-ia32',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-mas-x64',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-mas-armv7l',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-win32-ia32',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-win32-x64',
  '/Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-win32-armv7l' ] +3ms
  electron-packager Pruning modules via: npm prune --production +2s
  electron-packager Renaming Electron to electron-packager-babel-question in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/MacOS +3s
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper to electron-packager-babel-question Helper in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper.app/Contents/MacOS +0ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper.app to electron-packager-babel-question Helper.app in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks +1ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper EH to electron-packager-babel-question Helper EH in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper EH.app/Contents/MacOS +0ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper EH.app to electron-packager-babel-question Helper EH.app in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks +0ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper NP to electron-packager-babel-question Helper NP in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper NP.app/Contents/MacOS +1ms
  electron-packager Renaming Electron Helper NP.app to electron-packager-babel-question Helper NP.app in /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks +0ms
  electron-packager Moving /var/folders/2k/pgyx4y5s0kxghmdmkbcj5xqw0000gn/T/electron-packager/darwin-x64/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64 to /Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64 +0ms
Wrote new app to /Users/dave/Desktop/temp/electron-packager-babel-question/electron-packager-babel-question-darwin-x64

What command line arguments are you passing? Alternatively, if you are using the API, what parameters are you passing to the packager() function?

None

Please provide either a failing minimal testcase (with a link to the code) or detailed steps to reproduce your problem. Using electron-quick-start is a good starting point.

This repository recreates the issue using a simple app.

[dland512]

Got it, thank you for the suggestions.

[malept]

Electron Packager does not support Babel directly. You should use either electron-compile or Electron Forge, which uses both Packager and electron-compile internally.