Electron 29 beta Cannot Find Packages when using ESM

[johnlindquist]

Describe the bug

Reproduce

You can use this repo to reproduce (it just followed the steps below): https://github.com/johnlindquist/electron-29

• npm create @quick-start/electron
• Follow esm guide
• install electron-log and use it in main/index.ts: https://github.com/johnlindquist/electron-29/blob/main/src/main/index.ts#L5
• install Electron 29 npm i electron@beta (29.0.0-beta.5 as of today)

npm run dev

Works fine

npm run build:mac

• Successfully builds
• open ./dist/mac-arm64/foo.app

Your run into a Cannot find package, "electron-log" error.

Uncaught Exception:
Error: Cannot find package '/Users/johnlindquist/dev/electron-29/dist/mac-arm64/electron-29.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/electron-log/package.json' imported from /Users/johnlindquist/dev/electron-29/dist/mac-arm64/electron-29.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/out/main/index.mjs
Did you mean to import electron-log/src/index.js?
at legacyMainResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:189:26)
at packageResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:783:14)
at moduleResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:845:20)
at defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:1050:11)
at ModuleLoader.defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:383:12)
at ModuleLoader.resolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:352:25)
at ModuleLoader.getModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:228:38)
at ModuleWrap.<anonymous> (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:85:39)
at link (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:84:36)

Fix

Downgrade to Electron 28, build works fine again.

Electron-Vite Version

2.0.0

Electron Version

29.0.0-beta.5

Vite Version

5.0.11

Validations

• Follow the Code of Conduct.
• Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• Read the docs.
• Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.

[1zilc]

我前几天也遇到过，当时以为是external的问题，结果asar:false 后node_modules 都在里面，并且能正常运行 ,这个应该是electron 29的问题，建议反馈到electron issue

[undergroundwires]

I still reproduce this with latest electron-vite (2.1.0), electron-builder (24.13.3), electron-log (v5.1.2) and electron (v29.1.4 same with latest v28, i.e. v28.2.7).

The suggested solutions did not work for me:

• Downgrading Electron to v28 did not solve my issue, the same error latest v28 (v28.2.7).
• Setting asar: false had no affect.

Error is there when running electron-vite dev and electron-vite preview.

How did you solve this?

[1zilc]

I still reproduce this with latest electron-vite (2.1.0), electron-builder (24.13.3), electron-log (v5.1.2) and electron (v29.1.4 same with latest v28, i.e. v28.2.7).

The suggested solutions did not work for me:

• Downgrading Electron to v28 did not solve my issue, the same error latest v28 (v28.2.7).

• Setting asar: false had no affect.

Error is there when running electron-vite dev and electron-vite preview.

How did you solve this?

try 29.1.1

[undergroundwires]

I got same error running after clean install of Electron 29.1.1. I run electron-vite build before running dev just in case.

Error:

Uncaught Exception:
Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find module '/home/bob/user/dev/undergroundwires/privacy.sexy/node_modules/electron-log/main' imported from /home/bob/user/dev/undergroundwires/privacy.sexy/dist-electron-unbundled/main/index.mjs
Did you mean to import electron-log/main.js?
    at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:406:5)
    ...

I realize that I'm only getting this error if I import electron-log from /main alias such as:

import log from "electron-log/main";

Importing only from electron-log does not yield this error:

import log from "electron-log";

However importing it as /main is recommended in its README as it's best practice to get right context.

I'm unsure if this has anything to do with electron-vite or electron/electron#41241.

[alex8088]

electron-vite only builds the code and does not affect the runtime. This problem may be a problem with electron-builder or electron. There is no problem with subpath modules under cjs, so it is more likely to be an electron issue. The PR electron/electron#41241. does not seem to solve all the problems. This looks like an asar problem, electron esm loader cannot correctly resolve subpath modules.

[alex8088]

Don't externalize the module yet and let electron-vite bundle it. This is also a way to avoid this problem.

[undergroundwires]

The suggested workaround worked for me. Thank you for the capability, sticking around and supporting the community @alex8088 ❤️.

This fixes it:

externalizeDepsPlugin({
      exclude: [ electron-log' ]
})]

[theogravity]

I was able to get around this with import log from "electron-log/main.js";