asticode/go-astilectron

Option to use 'system' electron

Closed this issue · 5 comments

raboof commented

I'm on a somewhat weird system (NixOS), and the Electron downloaded by go-astilectron doesn't work out of the box.

Electron is, however, packaged in nixpkgs, so there is a 'system-installed' electron that does work.

Would it be possible to (either via code or an environment variable or so) use the system electron instead of downloading one? While I understand it would go against the go-astilectron advantage of having a predictable version of electron, it would be a useful 'escape hatch' in situations such as mine.

asticode commented

Mmmm I don't really know how this system-installed Electron version works therefore I don't know whether this will work properly.

I think the best is to test it :

if name == "Electron" {
    return
}
  • set path to electron here
  • you can run the example in the main repo
raboof commented

I can confirm that the example doesn't work with the downloaded example, and does work after the above-mentioned changes.

For reference, my attempt with the downloaded attempt was with the following nix configuration:

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:

(pkgs.buildFHSUserEnv {
  name = "axolotl";

  targetPkgs = pkgs: [
    pkgs.nodejs
    pkgs.gcc
    pkgs.go_1_15
    pkgs.glib
    pkgs.nss
    pkgs.nspr
    pkgs.atk
    pkgs.at-spi2-core
    pkgs.at-spi2-atk
    pkgs.xlibs.libX11
    pkgs.xlibs.libxcb
    pkgs.xlibs.libXcomposite
    pkgs.xlibs.libXdamage
    pkgs.xlibs.libXext
    pkgs.xlibs.libXfixes
    pkgs.xlibs.libXrandr
    pkgs.expat
    pkgs.libdrm
    pkgs.libxkbcommon
    pkgs.libGL_driver
    pkgs.alsaLib
    pkgs.cups
    pkgs.dbus_daemon
    pkgs.gdk_pixbuf
    pkgs.gtk3-x11
    pkgs.gnome2.pango
    pkgs.cairo
  ];
}).env

With this the example fails with:

...
2021/02/17 13:24:00 Starting cmd /home/aengelen/dev/go-astilectron/example/vendor/electron-linux-amd64/electron /home/aengelen/dev/go-astilectron/example/vendor/astilectron/main.js 127.0.0.1:42645 false
2021/02/17 13:24:00 '/home/aengelen/dev/go-astilectron/example/vendor/electron-linux-amd64/electron' exited with code: -1
2021/02/17 13:24:00 App has crashed

And running electron separately also crashes:

$ /home/aengelen/dev/go-astilectron/example/vendor/electron-linux-amd64/electron

Electron 11.1.0 - Build cross platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
Usage: electron [options] [path]

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.

Options:
  -i, --interactive     Open a REPL to the main process.
  -r, --require         Module to preload (option can be repeated).
  -v, --version         Print the version.
  -a, --abi             Print the Node ABI version.
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)
$

I'd be happy to help turn this into a PR, but would need some guidance on what you'd like it to look like :).

asticode commented

Can you paste what go env prints in NixOS ?

raboof commented

sure!

GO111MODULE=""
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/home/aengelen/.cache/go-build"
GOENV="/home/aengelen/.config/go/env"
GOEXE=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="linux"
GOINSECURE=""
GOMODCACHE="/home/aengelen/go/pkg/mod"
GONOPROXY=""
GONOSUMDB=""
GOOS="linux"
GOPATH="/home/aengelen/go"
GOPRIVATE=""
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/nix/store/wh5b1z3axqgr98rxlmps9m5phlxdxs5z-go-1.15.8/share/go"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/nix/store/wh5b1z3axqgr98rxlmps9m5phlxdxs5z-go-1.15.8/share/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
AR="ar"
CC="gcc"
CXX="g++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD="/home/aengelen/dev/axolotl/go.mod"
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/run/user/1000/go-build422931867=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches"
asticode commented

mmmm GOARCH="amd64" and GOOS="linux" which means there is no way to automatically detect NixOS. Therefore we'll need to propose this alternative through an option instead of automatically.

Here's the way I see it:

  • Add an option CustomElectronPath string here (order fields alphabetically)
  • Put line 63 --> 67 here in a if o.CustomElectronPath == "" so that Electron path are only set automatically if this option is empty. In the else put p.appExecutable = o.CustomElectronPath
  • Before the return here, put an if paths.ElectronUnzipSrc() == "" { return }

Then to test you'll need to set the CustomElectronPath option to your Electron system path and confirm this is working properly.