Option to Disable Combined NSIS Installer When Building for Multiple Architectures

[PeterDaveHello]

• Electron-Builder Version: 24.13.3
• Node Version: v18.20.3
• Electron Version: 31.1.0
• Electron Type (current, beta, nightly): current
• Target: nsis installer, arch: ia32, x64 on Windows 11

When building for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, Electron Builder creates separate installers for each architecture as well as a combined installer. Is there an option to disable the creation of this combined installer?

Currently, I can't find a way on the doc(https://www.electron.build/configuration/nsis#32-bit-64-bit) to only generate the separate 32-bit and 64-bit installers without also producing the combined one. It would be helpful to have an option like nsis.disableCombinedInstaller: true or nsis.enableCombinedInstaller: false to prevent the creation of the combined installer when it's not needed.

Thank you for your assistance.

[PeterDaveHello]

It seems this feature doesn't just work on 32-bit(x86/ia32) + 64-bit(amd64), as the doc mentioned, but also on arm64+amd64, arm64+amd64+ia32, and maybe other combinations.

These are the screenshots from using 7-zip to open the $PLUGINSDIR\ folder in the NSIS installers in different combinations:

[mmaietta]

So I must admit I don't have the original insight as to why the installers are always combined. I had a project in the past where it was required to have two distinct installers, one for each bitness, though and I implemented an electron-builder script using the programmatic API. I think it looked something akin to the code below (just make sure your artifact name uses the {arch} macro so that the second build command doesn't overwrite the artifact of the first one.) https://www.electron.build/api/programmatic-usage

await builder.build({
  targets: platform.createTarget("nsis", 'x64')
  config: options
})
await builder.build({
  targets: platform.createTarget("nsis", 'ia32')
  config: options
})

[PeterDaveHello]

Sure we can do it by different approach like using command line to build them separately, but a simple option would be also nice 😄

[mmaietta]

Can you share your electron-builder config?

Try this win config for your electron-builder configuration. I was able to build separate installers for x64 and arm64 in this manner.

win: {
        target: [
            {
                target: 'nsis',
                arch: 'x64'
            },
            {
                target: 'nsis',
                arch: 'arm64'
            }
        ],  
}

[MikesGlitch]

+1 for having a config value for this.

I'm building better-sqlite3 and it needs to be built once per architecture. The combined installer would take the last built better-sqlite3 which would fail for the other archs.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[mmaietta]

Revisiting this request. I'll see what I can do but the logic in NsisTarget is extremely complex 😅

[mmaietta]

Update: I've added a configuration property to allow disabling universal builds, but it's only available to nsis. nsis-web requires universal in order for it to be able to determine what build to install. The difficulty in implementation is that nsis-web target extends NsisTarget, so the logic needed to be conditional and overridden for nsis-web target.

The PR introduces a config property buildUniversalInstaller (default true for backward compatibility) In order to build separate exe's, I needed to update the installer name template to include an arch. Unless a defaultArch is supplied in the electron-builder config, x64 will not have a suffix appended to the file name (backward compatibility) and the other arch builds will have suffix -${arch}.${ext}

[alanhamlett]

target: [ { target: 'nsis', arch: 'x64' }, { target: 'nsis', arch: 'arm64' } ],

That electron-builder.json config for me still builds the universal win32 installer. How do I disable that?

  • electron-builder  version=24.13.3 os=23.6.0
  • loaded configuration  file=./desktop-wakatime/electron-builder.json
  • writing effective config  file=release/builder-effective-config.yaml
  • packaging       platform=win32 arch=x64 electron=32.0.0 appOutDir=release/win-unpacked
  • packaging       platform=win32 arch=arm64 electron=32.0.0 appOutDir=release/win-arm64-unpacked
  • building        target=nsis file=release/wakatime-win32.exe archs=x64, arm64 oneClick=false perMachine=false
  • building block map  blockMapFile=release/wakatime-win32.exe.blockmap
  • building        target=nsis file=release/wakatime-win32-x64.exe archs=x64 oneClick=false perMachine=false
  • building block map  blockMapFile=release/wakatime-win32-x64.exe.blockmap
  • building        target=nsis file=release/wakatime-win32-arm64.exe archs=arm64 oneClick=false perMachine=false
  • building block map  blockMapFile=release/wakatime-win32-arm64.exe.blockmap

[mmaietta]

Would anyone be willing to test out this patch-package?

I'm unable to test for arch combinations including ia32, so I need a person to test with "arm64", "x64", "ia32", as ia32 isn't package-able on my mac (arm64 limitation IIRC)

Would also appreciate anyone trying to test out the updater logic, I'm still verifying that myself as well.

app-builder-lib+26.0.0-alpha.3.patch

diff --git a/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/codeSign/signManager.js b/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/codeSign/signManager.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..09883b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/codeSign/signManager.js
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+"use strict";
+Object.defineProperty(exports, "__esModule", { value: true });
+exports.SignManager = void 0;
+class SignManager {
+    constructor(packager) {
+        this.packager = packager;
+    }
+}
+exports.SignManager = SignManager;
+//# sourceMappingURL=signManager.js.map
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/NsisTarget.js b/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/NsisTarget.js
index e79c555..31aee98 100644
--- a/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/NsisTarget.js
+++ b/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/NsisTarget.js
@@ -56,8 +56,15 @@ class NsisTarget extends core_1.Target {
         }
         nsisUtil_1.NsisTargetOptions.resolve(this.options);
     }
+    buildUniversalInstaller() {
+        const buildSeparateInstallers = this.options.buildUniversalInstaller === false;
+        return !buildSeparateInstallers;
+    }
     build(appOutDir, arch) {
         this.archs.set(arch, appOutDir);
+        if (!this.buildUniversalInstaller()) {
+            return this.buildInstaller(new Map().set(arch, appOutDir));
+        }
         return Promise.resolve();
     }
     get isBuildDifferentialAware() {
@@ -94,7 +101,10 @@ class NsisTarget extends core_1.Target {
             return await createPackageFileInfo(archiveFile);
         }
     }
-    get installerFilenamePattern() {
+    installerFilenamePattern(primaryArch, defaultArch) {
+        if (!this.buildUniversalInstaller()) {
+            return "${productName} " + (this.isPortable ? "" : "Setup ") + "${version}" + (primaryArch != null ? (0, builder_util_1.getArchSuffix)(primaryArch, defaultArch) : "") + ".${ext}";
+        }
         // tslint:disable:no-invalid-template-strings
         return "${productName} " + (this.isPortable ? "" : "Setup ") + "${version}.${ext}";
     }
@@ -102,8 +112,11 @@ class NsisTarget extends core_1.Target {
         return this.name === "portable";
     }
     async finishBuild() {
+        if (!this.buildUniversalInstaller()) {
+            return this.packageHelper.finishBuild();
+        }
         try {
-            const { pattern } = this.packager.artifactPatternConfig(this.options, this.installerFilenamePattern);
+            const { pattern } = this.packager.artifactPatternConfig(this.options, this.installerFilenamePattern());
             const builds = new Set([this.archs]);
             if (pattern.includes("${arch}") && this.archs.size > 1) {
                 ;
@@ -119,12 +132,13 @@ class NsisTarget extends core_1.Target {
         }
     }
     async buildInstaller(archs) {
-        var _a, _b;
+        var _a, _b, _c;
         const primaryArch = archs.size === 1 ? ((_a = archs.keys().next().value) !== null && _a !== void 0 ? _a : null) : null;
         const packager = this.packager;
         const appInfo = packager.appInfo;
         const options = this.options;
-        const installerFilename = packager.expandArtifactNamePattern(options, "exe", primaryArch, this.installerFilenamePattern, false, this.packager.platformSpecificBuildOptions.defaultArch);
+        const defaultArch = (_b = (0, platformPackager_1.chooseNotNull)(this.packager.platformSpecificBuildOptions.defaultArch, this.packager.config.defaultArch)) !== null && _b !== void 0 ? _b : undefined;
+        const installerFilename = packager.expandArtifactNamePattern(options, "exe", primaryArch, this.installerFilenamePattern(primaryArch, defaultArch), false, defaultArch);
         const oneClick = options.oneClick !== false;
         const installerPath = path.join(this.outDir, installerFilename);
         const logFields = {
@@ -160,7 +174,7 @@ class NsisTarget extends core_1.Target {
             BUILD_RESOURCES_DIR: packager.info.buildResourcesDir,
             APP_PACKAGE_NAME: (0, targetUtil_1.getWindowsInstallationAppPackageName)(appInfo.name),
         };
-        if ((_b = options.customNsisBinary) === null || _b === void 0 ? void 0 : _b.debugLogging) {
+        if ((_c = options.customNsisBinary) === null || _c === void 0 ? void 0 : _c.debugLogging) {
             defines.ENABLE_LOGGING_ELECTRON_BUILDER = null;
         }
         if (uninstallAppKey !== guid) {
@@ -279,7 +293,7 @@ class NsisTarget extends core_1.Target {
         defines.UNINSTALLER_OUT_FILE = definesUninstaller.UNINSTALLER_OUT_FILE;
         await this.executeMakensis(defines, commands, sharedHeader + (await this.computeFinalScript(script, true, archs)));
         await Promise.all([packager.sign(installerPath), defines.UNINSTALLER_OUT_FILE == null ? Promise.resolve() : (0, fs_extra_1.unlink)(defines.UNINSTALLER_OUT_FILE)]);
-        const safeArtifactName = (0, platformPackager_1.computeSafeArtifactNameIfNeeded)(installerFilename, () => this.generateGitHubInstallerName());
+        const safeArtifactName = (0, platformPackager_1.computeSafeArtifactNameIfNeeded)(installerFilename, () => this.generateGitHubInstallerName(primaryArch, defaultArch));
         let updateInfo;
         if (this.isWebInstaller) {
             updateInfo = (0, differentialUpdateInfoBuilder_1.createNsisWebDifferentialUpdateInfo)(installerPath, packageFiles);
@@ -300,10 +314,11 @@ class NsisTarget extends core_1.Target {
             isWriteUpdateInfo: !this.isPortable,
         });
     }
-    generateGitHubInstallerName() {
+    generateGitHubInstallerName(primaryArch, defaultArch) {
         const appInfo = this.packager.appInfo;
         const classifier = appInfo.name.toLowerCase() === appInfo.name ? "setup-" : "Setup-";
-        return `${appInfo.name}-${this.isPortable ? "" : classifier}${appInfo.version}.exe`;
+        const archSuffix = !this.buildUniversalInstaller() && primaryArch != null ? (0, builder_util_1.getArchSuffix)(primaryArch, defaultArch) : "";
+        return `${appInfo.name}-${this.isPortable ? "" : classifier}${appInfo.version}${archSuffix}.exe`;
     }
     get isUnicodeEnabled() {
         return this.options.unicode !== false;
diff --git a/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/WebInstallerTarget.js b/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/WebInstallerTarget.js
index 9b75baa..b7a707d 100644
--- a/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/WebInstallerTarget.js
+++ b/node_modules/app-builder-lib/out/targets/nsis/WebInstallerTarget.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 "use strict";
 Object.defineProperty(exports, "__esModule", { value: true });
 exports.WebInstallerTarget = void 0;
+const builder_util_1 = require("builder-util");
 const PublishManager_1 = require("../../publish/PublishManager");
 const NsisTarget_1 = require("./NsisTarget");
 /** @private */
@@ -27,8 +28,13 @@ class WebInstallerTarget extends NsisTarget_1.NsisTarget {
         defines.APP_PACKAGE_URL_IS_INCOMPLETE = null;
         defines.APP_PACKAGE_URL = appPackageUrl;
     }
-    get installerFilenamePattern() {
-        // tslint:disable:no-invalid-template-strings
+    buildUniversalInstaller() {
+        if (this.options.buildUniversalInstaller === false) {
+            builder_util_1.log.warn({ buildUniversalInstaller: true }, "only universal builds are supported for nsis-web installers, overriding setting");
+        }
+        return true;
+    }
+    installerFilenamePattern(_primaryArch, _defaultArch) {
         return "${productName} Web Setup ${version}.${ext}";
     }
     generateGitHubInstallerName() {