Hi all,
I’ve built an Electron application that uses two child processes:
An Express.js server
A Python executable (packaged .exe/binary)
During the development phase, everything works fine — the Electron app launches, both child processes start, and the app functions as expected.
But when I create a production build for macOS, the child processes don’t run.
Here’s a simplified snippet from my electron.mjs:
import { app, BrowserWindow } from "electron";
import { spawn } from "child_process";
import path from "path";
let mainWindow;
const createWindow = () => {
mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
width: 1200,
height: 800,
webPreferences: {
nodeIntegration: true,
},
});
mainWindow.loadFile("index.html");
// Start Express server
const serverPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "server", "index.js");
const serverProcess = spawn(process.execPath, [serverPath], {
stdio: "inherit",
});
// Start Python process
const pythonPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "python", "myapp");
const pythonProcess = spawn(pythonPath, [], {
stdio: "inherit",
});
serverProcess.on("error", (err) => console.error("Server process error:", err));
pythonProcess.on("error", (err) => console.error("Python process error:", err));
};
app.whenReady().then(createWindow);
I’ve already done the following:
Configured package.json with the right build settings
Set up extraResources / asarUnpack to include the server and Python files
Verified both child processes work standalone
Questions:
What’s the correct way to package and spawn these child processes for macOS production builds?
Do I need to move them into a specific location (like Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked) and reference them differently?
Is there a more reliable pattern for handling Express + Python child processes inside an Electron app bundle?
Any insights or working examples would be really appreciated!
