access to extraFiles electron-builder from packaged asar app electron

Question

I have an electron app that run perfectly into a dev environment with logs engine that write into file (with winston.js).

The structure of the project is this :

When I run electron-builder for packaging my app I have this struture :

• my app.asar file is into Resources directory
• my logs files are into data/logs

In dev environment I access to logs file with this winston config :

new winston.transports.File({filename: 'data/logs/error.log', level: 'error'})

But this specific path config only run into dev mode. And I don't find a good path for targetting the logs files in prod environment.

What kind of path I need to use in prod environment for targetting files out of Resources directory (or root of Contents directory installed application) ?

What is the best pratices for managing logs with electron app ?

Answer 1

For getting the resources and extraFiles paths in a packaged app as described in the electron-builder docs you can use process.resourcesPath

const getResourcesPath = () => {
  return process.resourcesPath;
};

const getExtraFilesPath = () => {
  return path.join(process.resourcesPath, '..'); // go up one directory
};

For logs, Electron provides a path for this purpose which you can check using app.getPath

app.getPath('logs');

By default, this will be ~/Library/Logs/YourAppName on macOS, and inside the userData directory on Linux and Windows

You can change this default path using app.setAppLogsPath if needed

Most Electron apps store logs in the default location