Getting Error: spawn ENOTDIR with activeWindow()

[sidh01]

No description provided.

[Ladvace]

same problem here, did you find a solution?

[qualwebs]

@Ladvace @sidh01 Anyone found the solution?

[Ladvace]

nope, I get this error on macos, not sure if it's supposed to ask for permissions or the user need to set it manually (didn't try this yet)

[qualwebs]

@Ladvace The app is working fine using electron start but not with the build, Not sure if the terminal has the permissions.

BTW, what you are building with this?

[Ladvace]

same for me, you mean what I'm using to build it?

[qualwebs]

No, I mean what purpose you're using this package?

[Ladvace]

how is this related to he problem?

[Nantris]

Filing a bug report for a native dependency without even specifying the OS is just asking to never get it addressed.

[qualwebs]

@Nantris It's in MacOS(Silicon chip), and happening when creating build, Dev mode with electron is working fine.

[Nantris]

@qualwebs did you see this? #99 (comment)

If this fixes the issue, there probably needs to be a note in the README for macOS too.

[Ladvace]

@qualwebs did you see this? #99 (comment)

If this fixes the issue, there probably needs to be a note in the README for macOS too.

I just tried this and it doesn't seem to fix it to me

[Nantris]

I'm planning to try this myself on macOS tomorrow, though not Silicon. Any other findings at all that might be helpful towards debugging? I wonder what version of macOS you're on as well and if your application is signed?

[qualwebs]

@Nantris
My macOS version is 14.6.1.
It works perfectly fine with dev mode in electron but not after build.

Also, Can I fetch browser URLs in linux and windows? if not, why and if that can be achieved?

[Nantris]

It works for me on macOS 14.5 - but specifically I tested with the optional permissions disabled.

I suspect the app needs to be signed and notarized to work. I can't answer about URLs because we don't need them, sorry.

Can't speak to whether this works on Silicon.

[trinhxyz]

@Nantris - Related to this issue: #189

[timeowilliams]

@qualwebs @sidh01 @Ladvace

I had the same error:

Error getting active window: Error: spawn ENOTDIR
    at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:421:11)
    at spawn (node:child_process:776:9)
    at execFile (node:child_process:351:17)
    at node:child_process:243:21
    at activeWindow (file:///Applications/deepfocus.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/get-windows/lib/macos.js:38:25)
    at activeWindow (file:///Applications/deepfocus.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/get-windows/index.js:18:10)
    at async Timeout._onTimeout (file:///Applications/deepfocus.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/out/main/index.js:220:26) {
  errno: -20,
  code: 'ENOTDIR',
  syscall: 'spawn'
}

I use an M1 Macbook Pro (16GB) & Sonoma 14.5

What worked for me was modifying the node-modules directly and changing this file:

node_modules/get-windows/lib/macos.js

Here's the code:

import path from "node:path";
import { promisify } from "node:util";
import childProcess from "node:child_process";
import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
import fs from "node:fs";
import process from "node:process";

const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
const execFile = promisify(childProcess.execFile);

// Detect if running in packaged mode using process.resourcesPath
const isPackaged = process.resourcesPath !== process.cwd();
console.log("isPackaged:", isPackaged);

// Set the binary path dynamically for both development and packaged (production) mode
let binary = isPackaged
	? path.join(
			process.resourcesPath,
			"app.asar.unpacked",
			"node_modules",
			"get-windows",
			"main",
		) // Packaged environment
	: path.join(__dirname, "../main"); // Development environment

console.log("Binary path:", binary);

// Ensure the binary exists
if (!fs.existsSync(binary)) {
	console.error("Binary file does not exist:", binary);
	binary = path.join(__dirname, "../main");
}

const parseMac = (stdout) => {
	try {
		return JSON.parse(stdout);
	} catch (error) {
		console.error(error);
		throw new Error("Error parsing window data");
	}
};

const getArguments = (options) => {
	const args = [];
	if (options?.accessibilityPermission === false) {
		args.push("--no-accessibility-permission");
	}
	if (options?.screenRecordingPermission === false) {
		args.push("--no-screen-recording-permission");
	}
	return args;
};

export async function activeWindow(options) {
	const { stdout } = await execFile(binary, getArguments(options));
	return parseMac(stdout);
}

export function activeWindowSync(options) {
	const stdout = childProcess.execFileSync(binary, getArguments(options), {
		encoding: "utf8",
	});
	return parseMac(stdout);
}

export async function openWindows(options) {
	const { stdout } = await execFile(binary, [
		...getArguments(options),
		"--open-windows-list",
	]);
	return parseMac(stdout);
}

export function openWindowsSync(options) {
	const stdout = childProcess.execFileSync(
		binary,
		[...getArguments(options), "--open-windows-list"],
		{ encoding: "utf8" },
	);
	return parseMac(stdout);
}

Note: some of the logic is meant for use with building an Electron app, but shouldn't be an issue.

Afterwards, I can get the activeWindow info with no issues.
Time spent on Getting Error: spawn ENOTDIR with activeWindow() · Issue #185 · sindresorhus/get-windows: 2m 0s

I'm considering raising a PR if this is a more common issue.

[trinhxyz]

@timeowilliams - thanks for the tip, could you raise the PR though, I'm curious to see what the fix is? Also are you using electron-forge?

[timeowilliams]

@trinhxyz :

https://github.com/Tech-Nest-Ventures/get-windows/blob/main/lib/macos.js

Something similar to this. I use electron-builder right now in combination with https://electron-vite.org/

[Ladvace]

I'm using electron-builder with https://electron-vite.org/ on Macos M1 too

[Ladvace]

I just tried to replace node_modules/get-windows/lib/macos.js as @timeowilliams did but I just get the following error:

App threw an error during load
Error: Binary file not found

because path.join(process.resourcesPath, 'app.asar.unpacked', 'node_modules', 'get-windows', 'main') doesn't exist

[Ladvace]

actually building it, I don't get the error, I just get this:

stdout: 'get-windows requires the accessibility permission in “System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility”.\n',

[Ladvace]

I can confirm that giving the right permission and the changes from @timeowilliams, it works!

[timeowilliams]

@trinhxyz ,

Ended up straying away quite a bit from this repo, but if you're interested in just using the dependency without having to mess with the code/just install, feel free to use this dependency:

https://github.com/Tech-Nest-Ventures/get-windows

^ Specifically optimized for MacOS at this time.

[Ladvace]

one thing I forgot to mention is that it worked fine in production, but for some reason isPackaged was true even when runned in dev (from the @timeowilliams code), so I got an error in that case, I didn't dig much into it, but expect for that, it was working fine

[timeowilliams]

@Ladvace ,

100%! Was using the wrong method.

Please change this in node_modules/get-windows/lib/macos.js

const isPackaged = process.main?.filename.indexOf("app.asar") !== undefined;

to this:

const isPackaged = process.resourcesPath !== process.cwd();

[Ladvace]

seems working great now!

[sindresorhus]

#192 (comment)