After enabling ANR detection for the main process, all Electron processes are spawned twice

[beyondkmp]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have checked for existing issues https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-javascript/issues
• I have reviewed the documentation https://docs.sentry.io/
• I am using the latest SDK release https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-javascript/releases

How do you use Sentry?

Sentry Saas (sentry.io)

Electron SDK Version

4.14.0

Electron Version

27.0.3

What platform are you using?

Windows

Link to Sentry event

No response

Steps to Reproduce

After enabling ANR detection for the main process, all Electron processes are being repeatedly created.

This ANR detection relies on the sentry/node ANR module, which checks and spawns a child process during application startup. However, this approach is causing other child processes to be duplicated in Electron.

Below is my code. Could you please help me check whether the issue is with my code or if this feature itself has a problem?
https://github.com/beyondkmp/Sentry-electron-anr

Expected Result

Only one additional ANR detection process is spawned

Actual Result

All processes are spawned twice

[fredyangRC]

The ANR monitoring was a feature we eagerly want to have.
Big thanks to the team effort that made that happen! However we also got a blocking issue.
I hope that you can help facilitate the priority for this fix.

Thanks,
Fred

[lforst]

Thanks for reporting this. We will take a look!

[timfish]

this approach is causing other child processes to be duplicated in Electron

How are you starting other child processes? I looked at the demo repo and couldn't find anything obvious.

Ah ok, looking at the screenshot, there are multiple Electron processes?

[beyondkmp]

Yes, there are two electron instance. Then there are duplicate network/gpu/crashpad process.

[beyondkmp]

@timfish
We need to add ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE =1 env option in this line(https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-javascript/blob/develop/packages/node/src/anr/index.ts#L106), then this anr process is just a node process instead of multiple electron process.

After adding this environment variable, the icon on the macOS dock no longer flashes. This code(#777) can be removed.

[timfish]

There are issues with using a node process for ANR, rather than another electron main process:

• We currently run the existing app main entry point again with a flag. This code (including our SDK) imports electron which will fail in node mode.
• Without access to Electron APIs we can't resolve much of the app context including the default appname@version release name.

I'll be back from vacation shortly and I'll be able to look into this further.

[timfish]

@sentry/node now uses a worker thread rather than a child process. Once we get the Electron SDK using the latest JavaScript SDKs this upgrade should be supported in Electron too.

[timfish]

This was closed by #810 and will be in the next release.