[5.x] Windows zip builds are always broken

[pimterry]

• [x] I have read the contribution documentation for this project.
• [x] I agree to follow the code of conduct that this project follows, as appropriate.
• [x] I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Please describe your issue:

When building the zip make target for Windows, the resulting build is never usable. Squirrel installers still seem to work fine.

See full project here for an example: https://github.com/httptoolkit/httptoolkit-desktop.

This happens because:

• Window zips (only) are built using zip-folder: https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge/blob/5.x/src/makers/generic/zip.js#L33
• Zip-folder passes options to archiver, which passes them directly to glob, which ignores all files starting with . by default.
• Because of this, the .cache folder for electron-compile is not included in the zip.
• If .cache does not exist, electron-compile does not run in production mode.
• When not running in production mode, electron-compile tries to require electron-compilers, which generally doesn't exist (and shouldn't be used in production builds regardless), so the whole app crashes immediately.

[malept]

This should be fixed in Forge 6.x, where cross-zip is used instead of zip-folder.

I don't have any plans for fixing this in the 5.x series, because I don't have the capability to test extensively for regressions when switching zip implementations on all platforms.

[pimterry]

Fair enough, I'm happy to roll forward if I can.

Is v6 stable, or does it have a schedule for it will be? Are there docs anywhere I can use on how to upgrade?

[malept]

There is no schedule, but there is a tracking issue: https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge/issues/621

I need to make a new release with the simple 5.x importer and then write some docs on how to upgrade when you're using an external config file.

[pimterry]

Great, thanks, I'll keep an eye on those.