[Bug]: child_process functions not working in packaged app

[ttrepka]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a bug report that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Electron Version

17.0.0

What operating system are you using?

macOS

Operating System Version

macOS Mojave 10.14.6

What arch are you using?

x64

Last Known Working Electron version

16.10.0

Expected Behavior

I can run child_process.exec, execFile and spawn from the main process in a packaged app.

Actual Behavior

child_process.exec, execFile and spawn work when I "Run" the project in Electron Fiddle but not when I package using "Tasks" > "Package fiddle...".

Testcase Gist URL

https://gist.github.com/ttrepka/701306ff2283166644e8f76efec3ad81

Additional Information

No response

[sergiou87]

Not sure if it's the same but definitely sounds similar: when trying to run spawn from the main process in a packaged Fiddle moved to /Applications on macOS Catalina, I'm getting a crash. But then the app works normally. I've used this Fiddle to reproduce the issue: https://gist.github.com/cf33b295daf2b42fd3f50a3bec6aea00

It crashes on all 17.x versions and 18.0.0-alpha, but not on 16.x.

On GitHub Desktop, we're getting reports of these crashes since we upgraded the app to 17.0.1: desktop/desktop#13974

[sergiou87]

Oh, not sure about this, but I think my issue is better described in #32718

[ckerr]

I think @sergiou87 is right, this does look like a duplicate of the other issue. @ttrepka I see a fix for the other issue has been merged -- could you try this fix out with a version of Electron as described here and see if the problem is fixed or if it persists?

[ttrepka]

@ckerr I don't know how to test the fix of #32718, I guess I need to wait for the next release of 17.x.y?
As for the fix in Github Desktop you mentioned, it seems they only moved all calls to spawn to the renderer process, which is not a fix, just a workaround.

[ape-casear]

same problem

childProcess = cp.fork(path.join(__dirname, './child.js'))

    childProcess.on('error', (error) => {
        log('[CHILD] error:' + JSON.stringify(error))
    })
    childProcess.on('message', (msg) => {
        log('[CHILD] message' + msg)
    })
    childProcess.on('disconnect', () => {
        log('[CHILD] disconnect')
    })
    childProcess.on('close', () => {
        log('[CHILD] close')
    })
    childProcess.on('spawn', () => {
        log('[CHILD] spawn')
    })
    childProcess.on('exit', (code, sign) => {
        log(`[CHILD] exit code:${code}  sign:${sign}`)
    })

    log(`[CHILD] pid:${childProcess.pid}, connected: ${childProcess.connected}`)

expect:
[CHILD] pid:341, connected: true
[CHILD] spawn
[CHILD] message I am child
[CHILD] disconnect
[CHILD] exit code:0 sign:null
[CHILD] close

actually:
[CHILD] pid:650, connected: true
[CHILD] spawn
[CHILD] disconnect
[CHILD] exit code:null sign:SIGSEGV
[CHILD] close

[ttrepka]

I guess this really was a duplicate of #32718, fixed by #33114, released in Electron 17.1.1.
I'm closing this.