How does different versions of electron get downloaded depending on OS

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When you do npm i electron I get an electron.exe in my node modules, thats because I am on a windows machine and the prebuilt C++ binary for electron will be in .exe format, got it. If you install electron on a MAC I assume you get different prebuilt binaries, how does NPM know what prebuilt binary to install? My question is very specific I know, but I am curious how npm gives you different binaries. Does the electron team compile their binaries separately then tell NPM to download which one depending on the developer's OS?

electron npm node.js
1 Answers

If you look at node_modules/electron/package.json you will see that the electron package is running a postinstall script

"scripts": {
  "postinstall": "node install.js"
}

node_modules/electron/install.js is executed like any normal Node.js script and it can access information about your OS. This script downloads the appropriate electron binaries automatically

downloadArtifact({
  version,
  artifactName: 'electron',
  force: process.env.force_no_cache === 'true',
  cacheRoot: process.env.electron_config_cache,
  platform: process.env.npm_config_platform || process.platform,
  arch: process.env.npm_config_arch || process.arch
}).then(extractFile).catch(err => {
  console.error(err.stack)
  process.exit(1)
})
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