Cannot create an installer with electron-winstaller: “Stream was too long”

[tg-programmer]

I've been trying to create a Windows installer for my Electron application with the electron-winstaller module by running the following code:

const createWindowsInstaller = require('electron-winstaller').createWindowsInstaller
const path = require('path')

getInstallerConfig()
  .then(createWindowsInstaller)
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error(error.message || error)
    process.exit(1)
  })

function getInstallerConfig () {
  const installerPath = path.join('.');
  const releaseBuildsPath = path.join('..', '..', 'release-builds');
  const assetsPath = path.join('..', '..', 'assets');

  return Promise.resolve({
    appDirectory: path.join(releaseBuildsPath, '[application name]-win32-x64'),
    authors: '[my name]',
    noMsi: true,
    outputDirectory: installerPath,
    exe: '[application name].exe',
    setupExe: '[application name].exe',
    setupIcon: path.join(assetsPath, 'demo.ico'),
  })
}

However, I keep getting the following error:

Failed with exit code: 1
Output:
Attempting to build package from '[application name].nuspec'.
lib/net45/resources/app.asar
Stream was too long.

The script I ran to create the windows package is this:

electron-packager . [application name] --overwrite --asar --platform=win32 --arch=x64 --icon=assets/demo.ico --prune=true --out=release-builds

With the asar option enabled and the prune flag set to true, I don't see any other options for reducing the size of the app.asar file, which supposedly is too large and causing this issue.

I also don't quite understand where the lib/net45/resources/app.asar file shown in the above error message is located; there is no directory named "lib" or "net45" on my system (macOS Mojave).

Here is the detailed result of running the script with the debugging output enabled:

  electron-windows-installer:main Using Mono: 'mono' +0ms
  electron-windows-installer:main Using Wine: 'wine' +2ms
  electron-windows-installer:main Created NuSpec file:
  electron-windows-installer:main <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  electron-windows-installer:main <package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2010/07/nuspec.xsd">
  electron-windows-installer:main   <metadata>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <id>[application name]</id>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <title>[application name]</title>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <version>1.0.0</version>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <authors>tg</authors>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <owners>tg</owners>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <iconUrl>https://raw.githubusercontent.com/atom/electron/master/atom/browser/resources/win/atom.ico</iconUrl>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <description>A desktop vocabulary builder app</description>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <copyright>Copyright © 2019 tg</copyright>
  electron-windows-installer:main   </metadata>
  electron-windows-installer:main   <files>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="locales/**" target="lib/net45/locales" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="resources/**" target="lib/net45/resources" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.bin" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.dll" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.pak" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.exe.config" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.exe.sig" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="icudtl.dat" target="lib/net45/icudtl.dat" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="Squirrel.exe" target="lib/net45/squirrel.exe" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="LICENSE" target="lib/net45/LICENSE" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="[application name].exe" target="lib/net45/[application name].exe" />
  electron-windows-installer:main   </files>
  electron-windows-installer:main </package>
  electron-windows-installer:main  +7s
Failed with exit code: 1
Output:
Attempting to build package from '[application name].nuspec'.
lib/net45/resources/app.asar
Stream was too long.

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

[Alexie81]

I've been trying to create a Windows installer for my Electron application with the electron-winstaller module by running the following code:

const createWindowsInstaller = require('electron-winstaller').createWindowsInstaller
const path = require('path')

getInstallerConfig()
  .then(createWindowsInstaller)
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error(error.message || error)
    process.exit(1)
  })

function getInstallerConfig () {
  const installerPath = path.join('.');
  const releaseBuildsPath = path.join('..', '..', 'release-builds');
  const assetsPath = path.join('..', '..', 'assets');

  return Promise.resolve({
    appDirectory: path.join(releaseBuildsPath, '[application name]-win32-x64'),
    authors: '[my name]',
    noMsi: true,
    outputDirectory: installerPath,
    exe: '[application name].exe',
    setupExe: '[application name].exe',
    setupIcon: path.join(assetsPath, 'demo.ico'),
  })
}

However, I keep getting the following error:

Failed with exit code: 1
Output:
Attempting to build package from '[application name].nuspec'.
lib/net45/resources/app.asar
Stream was too long.

The script I ran to create the windows package is this:

electron-packager . [application name] --overwrite --asar --platform=win32 --arch=x64 --icon=assets/demo.ico --prune=true --out=release-builds

With the asar option enabled and the prune flag set to true, I don't see any other options for reducing the size of the app.asar file, which supposedly is too large and causing this issue.

I also don't quite understand where the lib/net45/resources/app.asar file shown in the above error message is located; there is no directory named "lib" or "net45" on my system (macOS Mojave).

Here is the detailed result of running the script with the debugging output enabled:

  electron-windows-installer:main Using Mono: 'mono' +0ms
  electron-windows-installer:main Using Wine: 'wine' +2ms
  electron-windows-installer:main Created NuSpec file:
  electron-windows-installer:main <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  electron-windows-installer:main <package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2010/07/nuspec.xsd">
  electron-windows-installer:main   <metadata>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <id>[application name]</id>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <title>[application name]</title>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <version>1.0.0</version>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <authors>tg</authors>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <owners>tg</owners>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <iconUrl>https://raw.githubusercontent.com/atom/electron/master/atom/browser/resources/win/atom.ico</iconUrl>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <description>A desktop vocabulary builder app</description>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <copyright>Copyright © 2019 tg</copyright>
  electron-windows-installer:main   </metadata>
  electron-windows-installer:main   <files>
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="locales/**" target="lib/net45/locales" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="resources/**" target="lib/net45/resources" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.bin" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.dll" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.pak" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.exe.config" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="*.exe.sig" target="lib/net45" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="icudtl.dat" target="lib/net45/icudtl.dat" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="Squirrel.exe" target="lib/net45/squirrel.exe" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="LICENSE" target="lib/net45/LICENSE" />
  electron-windows-installer:main     <file src="[application name].exe" target="lib/net45/[application name].exe" />
  electron-windows-installer:main   </files>
  electron-windows-installer:main </package>
  electron-windows-installer:main  +7s
Failed with exit code: 1
Output:
Attempting to build package from '[application name].nuspec'.
lib/net45/resources/app.asar
Stream was too long.

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

I think is just:

const electronInstaller = require('electron-winstaller');

[Bug-Reaper]

Building for windows x64 on M1 MacOS via electron forge:

An unhandled rejection has occurred inside Forge:
Error: Failed with exit code: 1
Output:
Attempting to build package from '[application name].nuspec'.
lib/net45/resources/app.asar
Stream was too long.
at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/[project path]/node_modules/electron-winstaller/lib/spawn-promise.js:48:24)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:513:28)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:489:12)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1100:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:304:5)

My app is 4Gib -- I'm gonna take a look at spawn-promise.js:48:24. Perhaps also explore work-around with unpacking ASAR

[Bug-Reaper]

Examination of spawn-promise.js did not yield anything interesting at a glance. Though I added extra logging and it appears we're attempting to run:

nuget.exe pack [temp dir]/[app name].nuspec -BasePath [project path]/out/[app name]-win32-x64 -OutputDirectory [tmp path]/[tmp file].lgig -NoDefaultExcludes

The word on the street is that windows doesn't allow exe files over 4Gib though there are ways to tell Windows to load only a specific section of the exe file. Possibly related but I get the gist that's more of a runtime constraint and not a creation constraint.

EDIT : Also related the wonderful people at chocolatey apparently got around this via "different methods to create nupkgs". By far the most promising lead. chocolatey/choco#2278

---

No idea how to package my app for windows with auto-updates lol fantastic.

[Bug-Reaper]

Fixed it via using a newer version of NuGet.exe :

1. Download https://dist.nuget.org/win-x86-commandline/latest/nuget.exe
2. In your project folder replace node_modules/electron-winstaller/vendor/nuget.exe with the exe you downloaded.
3. Re-run your build.

---

You can also use --vendorOverride [path] to force winstaller to use your own custom vendor folder. but for an easy short-term fix dropping the exe into place is much easier