forge: vscode-nix script cannot find the other executables

Preflight Checklist

I have read the contribution documentation for this project.
I agree to follow the code of conduct that this project follows, as appropriate.
I have searched the issue tracker for a bug that matches the one I want to file, without success.
- I did find https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge/issues/535, the closing PR for this issue introduced the problem I’m experiencing.

Issue Details

Electron Forge Version:
- 6.0.0-beta.47
Electron Version:
- v7.1.7
Operating System:
- macOS 10.15.2

Expected Behavior

Using the launch configuration from https://www.electronforge.io/advanced/debugging in VS Code enables debugging for the new application.

Actual Behavior

The launch configuration errors with:

/Users/liamdawson/w/orcharduml/node_modules/.bin/electron-forge-vscode-nix --inspect-brk=35706 
internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:638
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module '/Users/liamdawson/w/@electron-forge/cli/dist/electron-forge-start'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:636:15)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:562:25)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:831:12)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:283:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:622:3)

To Reproduce

yarn v1.21.1
npm v6.13.4
node v10.16.3

Additional Information

I’m guessing it’s related to something about package nesting and/or symlinks?

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 5 years ago
Reactions: 6
Comments: 15 (1 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

Update VS Code debugger script Fix the debugger script to fix #1369, while still supporting the fix for #535. — committed to liamdawson/electron-forge by liamdawson 5 years ago
Fix #1369 Ran in to #1369 today. This PR is @thinreyxu 's patch which fixed the issue for me. — committed to Gracecr/electron-forge by Gracecr 2 years ago
chore: add electron VSCode launch setting for debugging main process ref: https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge/issues/1369#issuecomment-1172913835 — committed to grimmer0125/switchv by grimmer0125 2 years ago
Update debugging.md, fixing runtimeExecutable path The problem identified at https://github.com/electron/forge/issues/1369 persists. This updates the documentation along with the suggestion at https:... — committed to jeffbmartinez/electron-forge-docs by jeffbmartinez a year ago

Most upvoted comments

to fix it the electron-forge-vscode-nix file must be change from

#!/usr/bin/env bash
DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"

ARGS=$@
ARGS=${ARGS// /\~ \~}

node $DIR/../../../@electron-forge/cli/dist/electron-forge-start --vscode -- \~$ARGS\~

#!/usr/bin/env bash
DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"

ARGS=$@
ARGS=${ARGS// /\~ \~}

node $DIR/../@electron-forge/cli/dist/electron-forge-start --vscode -- \~$ARGS\~

+28

kresli on Mar 20, 2020

Yet another workaround or solution for debugging:

In your .vscode/ launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        { 
            "type": "node",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Electron Main",
            "runtimeExecutable": "npm",
            "runtimeArgs": ["run-script", "debug"],
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
        }
    ]
}

and another script in package.json:

scripts: {
    "debug": "electron-forge start --vscode",
…

(I don’t need any extra arguments, so I have not looked into that topic).

jpilgrim on Jul 2, 2022

I’m having this problem as well using electron-forge 6.1.1 with MacOS 12.2.1.

I tried using the original VSCode launch config from the Electron Forge Docs:

{
  "type": "node",
  "request": "launch",
  "name": "Electron Main",
  "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/.bin/electron-forge-vscode-nix",
  "windows": {
    "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/.bin/electron-forge-vscode-win.cmd"
  },
  // runtimeArgs will be passed directly to your Electron application
  "runtimeArgs": [
    "foo",
    "bar"
  ],
  "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
}

I solved it by simply pointing the runtimeExecutable directly at the Bash script’s true location rather than the symlink to the same file that exists in .bin/electron-forge-vscode-nix

- "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/.bin/electron-forge-vscode-nix",
+ "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/@electron-forge/cli/script/vscode.sh",

The problem seems related to the expectation that this line from the script gets the location of th script gets the true location, but instead it gets the location of the symlink.

DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"

frank-weindel on May 7, 2023

This is still an issue as of electron-forge @ 6.0.0-beta.61

Currently, patching this manually. Kinda brutal. Lets fix?

sloan-dog on Sep 17, 2021

same issue. The problem is Error: Cannot find module '/Users/liamdawson/w/@electron-forge/cli/dist/electron-forge-start' but it missing node_modules in path 🤔

kresli on Mar 19, 2020

@kresli thank you for this patch which worked with electron-forge 6.0.0-beta.61 on macOS with VSCode 1.62.3.

As someone who is new to Electron in general this was a really confusing and unfortunate issue for beginners.

automaton82 on Dec 7, 2021