fsevents get error "Module parse failed: Unexpected character '�' (1:0)"

What is the problem

in ./node_modules/electron-reload/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node

Module parse failed: Unexpected character '�' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)

 @ ./node_modules/electron-reload/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.js 13:15-41

node: 10.12.0 electron: 6.0.7

How to reproduce

just require("electron-reload")(__dirname)

Additional information

[pverscha]

@moarwick @Ratn I stumbled into the same problem today. A valid workaround for this problem is to add fsevents to your Webpack externals:

module.exports = {
  //...
  externals: {
    fsevents: "require('fsevents')"
  }
};

The issue is caused by this line const Native = require('./fsevents.node'); in fsevents.js. Since we’re using webpack, the require that’s being used here is the Webpack-equivalent of require() and not the one provided by node.

[pverscha]

@yan-foto I don’t, I just stumbled into this thread and it was the only one that comes up on Google with this problem. It’s completely fsevents related, but I just wanted to post a solution here to help fellow Googlers of the problem 😉