Apparently Window Closes when I edit Main Electron File

[deadcoder0904]

I just added console.log('its not working') to index.js & app stopped. index.html works.

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Submitted pull Requests

• #1 fix: preserve stdio on default-app restart

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[sindresorhus]

From the top of the readme:

When files used in the main process are changed, the app is restarted, and when files used in the browser window are changed, the page is reloaded.

[deadcoder0904]

Ohh so this is just a replacement for Refresh❓

When files used in the main process are changed, the app is restarted, and when files used in the browser window are changed, the page is reloaded.

I still don't understand this bcz my terminal stops but the app is still running & AFAIK when terminal stops app also closes when this package is not used.

[1nv1n]

Hey @sindresorhus, first off; thanks for the package! Adding my comment/question here since it's somewhat related to the issue opened.
I just initialized a new app using electron-forge & added electron-reloader.

I've included require('electron-reloader')(module); in a try-catch & if I make a change on main.js, the app restarts - but I end up with two windows. Make another change & now I have 3 windows.

It wasn't completely clear from the README whether this is expected (I would expect not), but wanted to check with you.

Thanks!

[Lokua]

I was also a bit confused as even though editing main.js does restart the app, it also exits the original process so you're left without terminal. I tried to patch around the source code but didn't get far, so decided to add my main process files to electron-reloader ignore option, and am using the following script to start the app. Perhaps others coming across this will find it helpful (you'll probably want to adjust the args to spawn to reflect your needs):

https://gist.github.com/Lokua/b88ffc4aa32398abe3cf8688444799ac

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[catdad]

This issue is inherent to how Electron works (at least on Windows). When an electron app is launched, it will create a new process group, separate from the command line process. When you app.relaunch(), it will in fact launch a second instance of the app when the first one exits. Anything running in-process inside the electron app won't have any control over the reuse of stdio, which is why this and all the other in-process live reloaders have this issue. Without digging into the electron source code itself to figure out if electron can be changed to allow for better restarts, the best way I have found to deal with this issue is using an out-of-process manager like electronmon.

[j0hnm4r5]

On MacOS, I'm hitting pretty much the same issue; on reload the terminal process exits and the app closes, then the app reopens (but the terminal process does not reconnect, leaving me with no console logs).

[johnsmith507]

I prepared a focused fix for this, but GitHub is refusing PR creation for this repository from my fork (createPullRequest permission error / REST 404).

Compare branch: main...johnsmith507:electron-reloader:codex/electron-reloader-terminal-restart

Summary:

• Keeps packaged-app behavior on app.relaunch().
• For development runs launched via the default Electron app, spawns the replacement process with inherited stdio before exiting.
• This keeps terminal logging attached after a main-process file change.

Verified with:

• npx -p node@16 -c 'node -v && npm test'

[Hmazo]

I prepared a focused branch for this, but GitHub is refusing PR creation from my fork with createPullRequest / 403 permission errors, including through both gh pr create and the GitHub API.

Compare branch:
main...Hmazo:electron-reloader:fix/default-app-stdio-relaunch

Fork branch:
https://github.com/Hmazo/electron-reloader/tree/fix/default-app-stdio-relaunch

Summary:

• keeps packaged/non-default app runs on the existing app.relaunch() path
• for development runs launched through Electron's default executable, restarts by spawning the same Electron command with inherited stdio before exiting
• releases the single-instance lock first when the current process holds it, so the replacement process is not routed back to the exiting instance
• adds a mocked regression test for both the default-app restart path and packaged relaunch path

Verification:

• npx -p node@14 -c "node -v && npm test" -> v14.21.3, xo && node test && tsd passed
• git diff --check

[zergzorg]

I prepared a focused fix for this, but GitHub is refusing upstream PR creation from this fork with the same CreatePullRequest permission error that others have reported.

Compare branch:
main...zergzorg:electron-reloader:codex/restart-with-stdio

Fork branch:
https://github.com/zergzorg/electron-reloader/tree/codex/restart-with-stdio

Summary:

• keeps packaged/non-default-app runs on the existing app.relaunch() path
• for development runs launched through Electron's default app path, restarts by spawning the same Electron command with inherited stdio before exiting
• releases the single-instance lock first when available, so the replacement process is not routed back to the exiting instance
• adds a regression test for both restart paths and the duplicate change guard

Validation:

• npm test
• git diff --check

Note: the local test run needed npm install --no-save @types/minimatch@3.0.5 because the current transitive @types/minimatch@6 breaks old @types/glob during tsd in this dependency tree. No package metadata or lockfile changes were made for that local workaround.

[whyujjwal]

I pushed a tested fix for this issue here:

• Branch: whyujjwal:fix/default-app-stdio-restart
• Compare: https://github.com/sindresorhus/electron-reloader/compare/main...whyujjwal:fix/default-app-stdio-restart?expand=1

Summary:

• keeps packaged / non-default Electron runs on the existing app.relaunch() path
• for default-app development runs, restarts by spawning a replacement Electron process with inherited stdio before exiting
• releases the single-instance lock first when the current process holds it, so the replacement process is not routed back to the exiting instance
• prevents duplicate restart storms from repeated change events

Validation:

• npm test

I also tried opening the upstream PR directly from this environment, but GitHub's API denied CreatePullRequest for the current token. If you'd like, I can keep iterating on the branch from here and publish any requested changes on the same compare link.