Support pnpm

[mika76]

Pre-flight checklist

• [X] I have read the contribution documentation for this project.
• [X] I agree to follow the code of conduct that this project uses.
• [X] I have searched the issue tracker for a feature request that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Problem description

Using pnpm does not seem to work with electron-forge. An error is thrown when executing pnpx electron-forge import and I do not see any mention of pnpm in the repository and docs.

It would be nice if it worked as pnpm is becoming more and more popular.

Proposed solution

Allow pnpm to work and show working in docs along npm and yarn.

Alternatives considered

npm and yarn

Additional information

No response

[renhiyama]

any ETA?

[RIP21]

Not only import but also the packaging is not working. This is needed to be fixed. It's impossible to use in Monorepos for now :(

[AlexanderMac]

Try the solution from electron-builder: https://www.electron.build/index.html#note-for-pnpm

My .npmrc file in the project root looks so:

node-linker=hoisted
public-hoist-pattern=*

[ghost]

Try the solution from electron-builder: https://www.electron.build/index.html#note-for-pnpm

My .npmrc file in the project root looks so:

node-linker=hoisted
public-hoist-pattern=*

Not work.Error info:

    at makeError (C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\pnpm\dist\pnpm.cjs:22287:17)
    at handlePromise (C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\pnpm\dist\pnpm.cjs:22858:33)
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
    at async Object.handler [as dlx] (C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\pnpm\dist\pnpm.cjs:199133:7)
    at async C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\pnpm\dist\pnpm.cjs:206494:21
    at async run (C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\pnpm\dist\pnpm.cjs:206465:34)
    at async runPnpm (C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\pnpm\dist\pnpm.cjs:206686:5)
    at async C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\pnpm\dist\pnpm.cjs:206678:7

Env: OS:Windows 10 Node Version:v16.17.1 pnpm Version:7.13.2

[BlackHole1]

I will investigate this issue in the next few days and would prioritize investigating: whether forge can work with pnpm hoist. https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/issues/6289#issuecomment-1042620422

If we need to get forge to actually support pnpm, it's technically possible to do so, it's just going to take a lot of time. I don't want to provide an approximate completion time for this, but I will raise its priority. 😃

[MarshallOfSound]

This isn't just a case of supporting pnpm with hoist enabled in this repository, several core dependencies do package traversal. The key ones being:

• https://github.com/MarshallOfSound/flora-colossus
• https://github.com/MarshallOfSound/galactus

Galactus depends on flora-colossus so if support is added correctly in the former galactus may Just Work™️

Then there's the stuff in this repository, most of which I believe is tied into the yarn-or-npm helper and routed into various helpers throughout the codebase

[itsdouges]

There's two aspects for pnpm support.

1. Getting electron forge CLI working with it
2. Getting electron packager working with it

Sounds like (1) can be resolved if flora-colossus is fixed, can you confirm @MarshallOfSound? Could there be an alternate library we can move to that uses the standard node resolution algorithm (as that should just work, no?).

For (2) - that's more tricky but considering it doesn't even support npm workspaces by default we have more problems. I'd say considering it has a workaround (implementing your own packageAfterCopy with prune: false) you could do the same for pnpm.

Is there any appetite from the core Electron team to look at both pnpm + workspace (for any package manger) support?

[erickzhao]

I think @BlackHole1 (who is also a pnpm maintainer) was investigating this issue. Not sure where we ended up!

[BlackHole1]

Thank you for the reminder, @erickzhao! I apologize for delaying this task 🙇‍♂️. Recently, I've been putting my energy into entrepreneurship-related matters and haven't had any extra time to investigate this task, leading me to forget about it 🫨. I will complete my current work as soon as possible to have additional time to conduct the investigation.

[sibelius]

what is missing here?

[erickzhao]

We currently have an open PR attached to this issue @sibelius! If you have any input to give as a pnpm user, would be appreciated.

[Everspace]

@erickzhao Which PR is it? What needs to be done still on it?

[GitMurf]

@erickzhao Which PR is it? What needs to be done still on it?

I assume this one? Although it seems the initial author randomly closed it? https://github.com/electron/forge/pull/3351

cc @erickzhao

[LZQCN]

Is it possible to modify some settings to prevent electron-forge from bundling dependencies, and instead manually bundle dependencies using esbuild or webpack, thereby avoiding dependence on any packages in node_modules? I think this way can bypass the problem of electron-forge being unable to handle pnpm workspace dependencies.

[BlackHole1]

@LZQCN You can temporarily bypass this issue by configuring pnpm. https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/issues/6289#issuecomment-1042620422

[LZQCN]

Is it possible to modify some settings to prevent electron-forge from bundling dependencies, and instead manually bundle dependencies using esbuild or webpack, thereby avoiding dependence on any packages in node_modules? I think this way can bypass the problem of electron-forge being unable to handle pnpm workspace dependencies.

I did it. see the monorepos project ai-zen/live2d-copilot.

I use esbuild to bundle dependencies, and avoided the electron-packager copying node_modules by using the following settings:

module.exports = {
  packagerConfig: {
    prune: false,
    ignore: [/node_modules/],
  },
}

[toFrankie]

👀

[SaigyoujiYuyuko233]

I use pnpm to install vue and other deps. Too many deps in node_module result npm install electron-squirrel-startup to take 4 hours. (Yes, 4 hours. And I don't really need squirrel)

edit: Changing line 66 in file node_modules\.pnpm\@[email protected]\node_modules\yarn-or-npm to return hasYarn() ? 'yarn' : 'pnpm'; (yes, replace npm to pnpm) will solve this issue.

pnpm just took 6 seconds.

[TechQuery]

Too many deps in node_module result npm install electron-squirrel-startup to take 4 hours.

When I pnpx Electron Forge CLI to init a project scaffold, it uses Yarn 1 to install dependencies unfinished in hours.

So I build an Electron scaffold with PNPM 9: idea2app/Electron-Parcel-PNPM.tsx#1

[yuyuko233]

Any news?

[erickzhao]

I think #3574 is the candidate PR moving forward but it will require a thorough review and I think is currently blocked on failing CI. Please follow along there for progress!

Since most maintainers are not PNPM users, we want to be careful with our approach to merging the code. In particular, Electron's approach to packaging applications assumes that node_modules are stored on disk in the traditional npm format, and things might break in subtle ways when using PNPM's symlink model.

Thanks for your patience, everyone. 🙇