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Confusion about cross-platform support: Backend service seems hardcoded to `TissueLab_AI.exe #7
Description
Hello!
First of all, thank you so much for developing and maintaining the TissueLab_AI project!
I noticed that the README.md states that the project supports cross-platform execution (Windows, Linux, macOS).
However, I encountered an issue when trying to run the project in a Linux environment. To debug this, I looked into the Electron main process code, specifically the spawnBackendService function and the logic in the app.on('ready') event.
I found that this part of the code seems to hardcode the path to the Windows executable(in ./app/electron/main.js):
function spawnBackendService() {
// This line is hardcoded to "windows/TissueLab_AI.exe"
const backendServicePath = path.join(__dirname, '../service/dist/TissueLab_AI/windows/TissueLab_AI.exe');
// This check will fail on Linux/macOS and prevent the service from starting
if (!fssync.existsSync(backendServicePath)) {
console.error(`[ELECTRON] Backend Service not found at: ${backendServicePath}`);
// ...
return false;
};
backendServiceProcess = spawn(backendServicePath, [], {stdio: 'inherit'});
// ...
}In the app.on('ready') event, this function is called, and on a Linux system, spawnBackendService() always returns false because it cannot find the .exe file.
My questions are:
-
Does this mean that the backend service in the current version only supports Windows?
-
If the project does support cross-platform, is there a different startup script I should be using, or am I expected to manually compile a Linux version of the backend service (e.g., a
linux/TissueLab_AIbinary)? -
Should the spawnBackendService function check the current operating system (e.g., using process.platform) and then dynamically decide which binary path to load?
Activity
cjjcn commentedon Nov 10, 2025
Follow-up:
I've been looking closer at the repository, and I've realized something that I'd like to clarify.
The
spawnBackendServicefunction I mentioned, which directly launches the.exe, seems to be a Windows-only convenience method.However, I see that you have also provided the complete backend service source code (the Django project).
This leads me to believe that for cross-platform development (on Linux/macOS), the intended workflow is to bypass Electron's service spawning entirely. Instead, I should manually run the backend service from its source code before I launch the Electron application.
Could you please confirm if this is the correct and intended approach? If so, this would perfectly explain the cross-platform support mentioned in the README.
Thanks again!
Songhao-LI commentedon Apr 3, 2026
Hi @cjjcn ,
Sorry for the late reply.
Yes! The
spawnBackendServiceis currently a Windows-only convenience that launches a prebuilt.exe, so it won’t work on Linux/macOS.For cross-platform usage, the intended workflow is to:
So yes, bypassing
spawnBackendServiceon Linux/macOS is the correct approach.