Package's productName cannot be set to `electron` (macOS)

[kurekszymon]

Pre-flight checklist

• I have read the contribution documentation for this project.
• I agree to follow the code of conduct that this project uses.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a bug that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Forge version

7.11.1

Electron version

39.2.7, 40.0.0

Operating system

MacOS 15.6

Last known working Forge version

No response

Expected behavior

either inform user it's not possible to set electron in package.json, or allow it in a way that it would work (maybe not colliding productName with electron binary?)

Actual behavior

currently if user sets "productName" property in package.json to electron, like

"productName": "electron",
... rest of config

and running yarn make|package app will get packaged, but it would be impossible to open it and will result in unexpected error .

Steps to reproduce

in your electron project that is using electron forge to package the app, set packageName field in package json to electron and run yarn make|package

if you create it like
npx create-electron-app@latest electron
and use npm instead of yarn - result will be the same.

Additional information

no additional console output, app opens and immediately exits, sometimes shows that app quit unexpectedly.

[kurekszymon]

also tested on Windows 10 in Parallels - it can be build with this name and it works.
if it's not expected to have it like this and expected behavior is known I could work on this

[erickzhao]

Hey @kurekszymon, thanks for the issue report. I think this is behaviour we could throw an error against without changing the existing logic. This would belong upstream in the electron/packager repo IMO. Moving the issue there.

[welcome]

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[erickzhao]

For reference, we do this kind of opts validation already here:

packager/src/packager.ts

Lines 364 to 368 in 1914fb0

	if (processedOpts.name?.endsWith(' Helper')) {
	throw new Error(
	'Application names cannot end in " Helper" due to limitations on macOS',
	);
	}

I think I'd be pretty open to accepting a new contribution along the same lines.

[kurekszymon]

thanks for the tip! change should be along the same lines - let me know if you'd change anything