Build for 32 bit platforms or only x64?

[ralphtheninja]

We need to modify so prebuildify also builds for 32 bit if this is the case. Linux and Windows.

For each platform-arch we will build two binaries, so if we build for x64 only on mac, linux and windows the resulting prebuilds/ folder will look like:

$ tree
.
├── darwin-x64
│   ├── electron-napi.node
│   └── node-napi.node
├── linux-x64
│   ├── electron-napi.node
│   └── node-napi.node
└── win32-x64
    ├── electron-napi.node
    └── node-napi.node

How common is 32 bit? Will people cry on windows? Personally I'd go for the above setup.

[vweevers]

I'm also fine with x64 only.

The GitHub API exposes download stats IIRC, we can check how many 32bit downloads we have now.

[vweevers]

4.0.1:

4.0.0:

3.0.2:

[vweevers]

So for the latest release, 1.9% of downloads are 32 bit. IMO it's fine to say, those few people should compile binaries themselves.

[vweevers]

@ralphtheninja good to close (we have an action item in #553)?

[ralphtheninja]

Yep!

[okdistribute]

Hi we're running into this issue because we are building for 32bit machines, we work with folks with old computers who live in remote locations. They have limited connectivity and will not be upgrading Windows to 64bit.

Is it possible to do a prebuilt for win32?

If not, is there something you could suggest for packaging leveldown>=5.0 on win32 with electron? electron-builder documentation is also quite sparse in this area, I've worked on it for a few hours now..

Here's the original issue reported from one of our partners and the error message which signals leveldown is not built for win32. digidem/mapeo-desktop#305 (comment)

[okdistribute]

apparently building 32-bit builds of leveldown as a dependency to an electron app is challenging, https://github.com/digidem/mapeo-desktop/runs/521162496?check_suite_focus=true

[vweevers]

Is it possible to do a prebuilt for win32?

Certainly. I'd be happy to help those folks and I don't see any technical challenge on this end. The only concern is increasing our npm package size, but (surprisingly) we haven't gotten a single compliant about that yet. Is it a concern for y'all, e.g. on slow networks?

[okdistribute]

Yeah, although now I'm trying your suggestion of running node and npm install on 32-bit and seeing if that works, even though the build machine is 64-bit

[okdistribute]

That didn't work for me so easily and I'm going to take a break from it now. How much would it increase the package size? The app we're shipping is >80mb, so an extra 250kb won't hurt