Make a setting for --build-from-option flag

[0181532686cf4a31163be0bf3e6bb6732bf]

This seems to fix #787

The only place I'm unsure of is (haven't touched yet):

electron-builder/src/install-app-deps.ts

Line 33 in a4eeade

await installDependencies(results[0], results[1], args.arch)

[mention-bot]

@lyssdod, thanks for your PR! By analyzing the history of the files in this pull request, we identified @develar, @demetris-manikas and @symbyte to be potential reviewers.

[0181532686cf4a31163be0bf3e6bb6732bf]

My main concern for this — I have to create installers for all platforms, but I have only one (Mac) available. Since I won't be able to rebuild my native modules with MSVC on Mac, I would like to use already present precompiled binaries for bundling

[darkshades42]

Hi! Any word on a review here? @develar

[develar]

Did you investigate why #647 doesn't work? I mean — why " it uses prebuilt to download native binary instead of compiling."? Why incorrect binaries were used?

I don't want to introduce yet another flag, it is better to investigate — is it really bug in the precompiled binaries.

[0181532686cf4a31163be0bf3e6bb6732bf]

@develar I`ll try to investigate 5.22.2 release

[develar]

@lyssdod Issue is not in the electron-builder, should be reproducible using latest version also.

[0181532686cf4a31163be0bf3e6bb6732bf]

The trick is in the --build-from-source flag which's being handled by node-pre-gyp and forces compilation instead of checking for binaries. In my particular case compilation fails because I've moved all compilation deps to devDependencies to minimize final package size (for fast npm install which will install only needed stuff). Moving these deps back to dependencies eliminates the benefits of using node-pre-gyp completely, because this way it will compile the code for one particular platform (host platform electron-builder is running at), but not for others.

[develar]

@lyssdod I understand you completely. But I want to understand — does node-pre-gyp works correctly or not. Bug #647 was reproduced by me — incorrect precompiled binaries were used. It is very, very critical — because you cannot test your app on all platforms and archs every release.

So, I ask you to check — is it node-pre-gyp bug or not. Who is guilty :) To ensure, that your approach really works and correct binaries will be used in ALL cases.

If you don't want to do this work, I can accept PR but this flag will be not documented and marked as experimental. And not by default.

[0181532686cf4a31163be0bf3e6bb6732bf]

I'm all up for solving this issue on the node-pre-gyp's side, it just seems to me that they're not very active and responsive to issues (in contrast to you 👍 ): mapbox/node-pre-gyp#239

I`ll look into bug #647 more thoroughly now.

[0181532686cf4a31163be0bf3e6bb6732bf]

Hi again @develar,

I've looked into #647 but didn't see any useful info there (release used there already has this flag enabled). Instead I've prepared a test repo which uses prebuilt modules after patching electron-builder:

https://github.com/lyssdod/electron-abi-test

I don't want to introduce yet another flag

http://electron.atom.io/docs/tutorial/using-native-node-modules/ says there's another method of specifying it:

# Tell node-pre-gyp to build module from source code.
export npm_config_build_from_source=true

I can update PR to handle this option instead of handling the flag if it makes sense.

Relevant lines in node-pre-gyp: https://github.com/mapbox/node-pre-gyp/blob/master/lib/install.js#L125-L132

[develar]

@lyssdod Ok, thanks.

So in general it is recommended to always build native modules from source code.

For now this flag will be not enabled by default, according to this note.

[0181532686cf4a31163be0bf3e6bb6732bf]

Thank you!