app.asar size is huge with electron-builder 22.11.8

See original GitHub issue
  • Electron-Builder Version: 22.11.8
  • Node Version: v16.4.1
  • Electron Version: 13.1.6
  • Electron Type (current, beta, nightly): current
  • Target: win64

I use electron-builder --dir to create a package. After changing electron-builder in devDependencies from latest to next, the size of my app.asar is huge. With latest/22.11.7 it is around 35MB. With next/22.11.8 it is around 70MB, and there is an additional directory app.asar.unpacked of 311MB (it contains folders 7zip-bin, app-builder-bin and electron.

When setting asar to false, the node_modules inside resources/app changes from 20MB to 342MB.

Could it be all devDependencies are packaged as well?

Issue Analytics

  • State:closed
  • Created 2 years ago
  • Comments:10 (2 by maintainers)

github_iconTop GitHub Comments

1reaction
mmaiettacommented, Jul 16, 2021

I’m trying to expand our current unit tests to cover and resolve this. Currently, I’ve added "node_modules/test.txt" to the corresponding ignoreTest.ts tests. If you’re willing to give it a shot, here’s the patch I’m running with for unit tests. Then I’m also using it with electron-quick-start repo with the config that @MaartenBent provided (thank you!).

patch.diff 
diff --git a/test/src/ignoreTest.ts b/test/src/ignoreTest.ts
index 5452b3eb..3e7b40c0 100644
--- a/test/src/ignoreTest.ts
+++ b/test/src/ignoreTest.ts
@@ -114,7 +114,8 @@ test.ifDevOrLinuxCi(
       targets: Platform.LINUX.createTarget(DIR_TARGET),
       config: {
         asar: false,
-        includeSubNodeModules: false  //  defaults to false too
+        includeSubNodeModules: false,
+        files: ["**/*", "node_modules/test.txt"],
       },
     },
     {
@@ -127,12 +128,14 @@ test.ifDevOrLinuxCi(
               ...data.dependencies,
             }
           }),
+          outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "test.txt"), "data"),
           outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules", "package.json"), "{}"),
           outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "submodule-2-test", "node_modules", "package.json"), "{}"),
         ])
       },
       packed: context => {
         return Promise.all([
+          assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "test.txt")).isFile(),
           assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules")).doesNotExist(),
           assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-2-test", "node_modules")).doesNotExist(),
         ])
@@ -148,7 +151,8 @@ test.ifDevOrLinuxCi(
       targets: Platform.LINUX.createTarget(DIR_TARGET),
       config: {
         asar: false,
-        includeSubNodeModules: true
+        includeSubNodeModules: true,
+        files: ["**/*", "node_modules/test.txt"]
       },
     },
     {
@@ -161,12 +165,14 @@ test.ifDevOrLinuxCi(
               ...data.dependencies,
             }
           }),
+          outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "test.txt"), "data"),
           outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules", "package.json"), "{}"),
           outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "submodule-2-test", "node_modules", "package.json"), "{}"),
         ])
       },
       packed: context => {
         return Promise.all([
+          assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "test.txt")).isFile(),
           assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules")).isDirectory(),
           assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-2-test", "node_modules")).isDirectory(),
         ])
@@ -182,10 +188,7 @@ test.ifDevOrLinuxCi(
       targets: Platform.LINUX.createTarget(DIR_TARGET),
       config: {
         asar: false,
-        files: [
-          "**/*",
-          "*/submodule-1-test/node_modules/**",
-        ],
+        files: ["**/*", "**/submodule-1-test/node_modules/**"],
       },
     },
     {
@@ -198,14 +201,18 @@ test.ifDevOrLinuxCi(
               ...data.dependencies,
             }
           }),
+          outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "test.txt"), "data"),
           outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules", "package.json"), "{}"),
           outputFile(path.join(projectDir, "node_modules", "submodule-2-test", "node_modules", "package.json"), "{}"),
         ])
       },
       packed: context => {
         return Promise.all([
+          assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "test.txt")).doesNotExist(),
           assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules")).isDirectory(),
-          assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules", "package.json")).isFile(),
+          assertThat(
+            path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-1-test", "node_modules", "package.json")
+          ).isFile(),
           assertThat(path.join(context.getResources(Platform.LINUX, archFromString(process.arch)), "app", "node_modules", "submodule-2-test", "node_modules")).doesNotExist(),
         ])
       },

Related: I use an alias for syncing my electron builder output to my local project instead of yalc. Seems to provide more consistent results

alias syncEB1="rsync -upaRv --include='*.js' --exclude='*.d.ts' --exclude='*.map'  <full_path_to>/electron-builder/packages/./*/out node_modules/"
1reaction
MaartenBentcommented, Jul 15, 2021

Hmmm, can you try just using this?

This doesn’t work. The *.node files are not included anymore since the order matters, see this description. And all the other extra files are still there.

It seems as soon as there is a not-ignore pattern containing node_modules, all the files are being packaged. For example, adding "node_modules/test.txt" anywhere in files triggers the problem.

The only work-around I found so far is not using "**/node_modules/**/build/Release/*.node" and use this instead:

      {
        "from": "node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/Release",
        "to": "node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/Release",
        "filter": "*.node"
      },

Also, I think the default glob pattern is always applied so you shouldn’t need to specify/extend them

Looks like it is. I can simplify the test case with electron-quick-start to just

    "files": [
      "**/*",
      "node_modules/test.txt"
    ]
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