electron/npm

electron-prebuilt

Install electron (formerly called atom-shell) prebuilt binaries for command-line use using npm.

Works on Mac, Windows and Linux OSes that Electron supports (e.g. Electron does not support Windows XP).

Electron is a javascript runtime that bundles Node.js and Chromium. You use it similar to the node command on the command line for executing javascript programs. This module helps you easily install the electron command for use on the command line without having to compile anything.

Installation

Download and install the latest build of electron for your OS and add it to your projects package.json as a devDependency:

npm install electron-prebuilt --save-dev

This is the preferred way to use electron, as it doesn't require users to install electron globally.

You can also use the -g flag (global) to symlink it into your PATH:

npm install -g electron-prebuilt

If that command fails with an EACCESS error you may have to run it again with sudo:

sudo npm install -g electron-prebuilt

Now you can just run electron to run electron:

electron

Usage

First you have to write an electron application

Then you can run your app using:

electron your-app/

Programmatic usage

If you require electron-prebuilt inside your node app it will return the file path to the binary. Use this to spawn electron

var electron = require('electron-prebuilt')
var proc = require('child_process')

// will something similar to print /Users/maf/.../Electron
console.log(electron)

// spawn electron
var child = proc.spawn(electron)