eclipse-theia/theia

[search-in-workspace] Workspace search does not work in Electron with asar packaging

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#7528 opened on Apr 8, 2020

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electronelectron-buildhelp wantedsearch in workspace

Description

Description

Workspace search does not work in Electron with asar packaging enabled because rg cannot be spawned. The following message is shown when launching the Electron executable via a console:

process ERROR Error: spawn C:\path\to\application\resources\app.asar\node_modules\vscode-ripgrep\bin\rg.exe ENOENT
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:232:19)
    at onErrorNT (internal/child_process.js:407:16)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:63:19)

In the above path, app.asar should be replaced with app.asar.unpacked, as binaries cannot be in the asar file and have to be unpacked instead in order to be executable. However, the rg path (created here and used here) does not take this into account.

See also https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/6262 for a general discussion about this issue.

Reproduction Steps

  1. Enter anything in the workspace search box. No search results are shown.

OS and Theia version: Windows 10 1803, Theia 0.16.1.

Diagnostics: See above.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
typescriptnodejselectron
Domain
desktopsearch
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
node.js basicselectron packagingasar file format
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
The issue is that the ripgrep binary is packed inside the asar archive and cannot be executed. The fix involves adjusting the path resolution to use 'app.asar.unpacked' instead of 'app.asar'. Investigate the path construction in 'packages/search in workspace/src/node/search in workspace backend module.ts' and the vscode ripgrep library's index.js (linked in the issue). Also consider using Electron's 'process.resourcesPath' to get the correct resources directory. The electron issue #6262 provides context.