Installing Mac and Windows Applications with Node.js

This article introduces how to use Node.js to install applications on macOS and Windows. The main package formats covered are exe, dmg, pkg, and zip.

• exe is mainly for Windows
• dmg, pkg, and zip are common on macOS

Installing .exe

.exe is the most common installer format on Windows.

Node.js provides the child_process module, which can execute command-line commands. That makes it possible to start an .exe installer from Node.

const { exec } = require("child_process");

exec("start install.exe", (error, stdout, stderr) => {
  if (error) {
    console.error(`error: ${error.message}`);
    return;
  }
  if (stderr) {
    console.error(`stderr: ${stderr}`);
    return;
  }
  console.log(`stdout: ${stdout}`);
});

Installing .dmg

.dmg is a common installer package format on macOS.

You can still rely on child_process and system commands to automate the installation flow:

const { exec } = require("child_process");

// mount the dmg

// locate the .app bundle

// copy the .app into /Applications

// unmount the disk image

Installing .pkg

You can use the built-in macOS installer command-line tool to install .pkg packages.

Installing .zip

For a .zip package, the general flow is:

1. extract it into a target directory
2. move the extracted .app into /Applications

That is the basic idea behind handling common Mac and Windows application packages with Node.js.