building-gbfr-logs

name	building-gbfr-logs
description	Use when building, compiling, packaging, or producing an installer/MSI for the GBFR Logs Tauri app, or when a build fails with "path matching hook.dll not found" or build.rs panics. Covers the hook-DLL prerequisite that `npm run tauri build` does not handle on its own.

Building GBFR Logs

Overview

GBFR Logs is a Tauri app with a separate injectable hook DLL crate. The release build bundles src-tauri/hook.dll as a Tauri resource, but no single command produces it. You must build the hook crate and place the DLL before running tauri build, or the build fails.

Core rule: build hook.dll first, copy it into src-tauri/, then build the app.

Just build it

Run the script — it does every step in the right order:

./scripts/build.ps1              # full release build (+ MSI bundle)
./scripts/build.ps1 -SkipInstall # skip npm install if deps are present
./scripts/build.ps1 -Dev         # npm run tauri dev instead of a release build

The failure this prevents

Running npm run tauri build directly (without the hook DLL) fails with:

thread 'main' panicked at src-tauri\build.rs:15:14:
Could not build Tauri app.: path matching hook.dll not found.

Cause: tauri.conf.json lists hook.dll under resources, but the hook crate (src-hook/, a cdylib) is never built by the tauri command. In debug builds, build.rs copies target/release/hook.dll itself; in release builds it does not, so the DLL must already exist at src-tauri/hook.dll.

Manual steps (what the script does)

This order matches .github/workflows/ci.yaml:

1. npm install
2. cargo build --release --package hook → produces target/release/hook.dll
3. Copy target/release/hook.dll → src-tauri/hook.dll
4. npm run tauri build (the frontend tsc && vite build runs automatically via beforeBuildCommand)

Quick reference

Goal	Command
Full release build + installer	./scripts/build.ps1
Frontend only (typecheck + bundle)	npm run build
Frontend dev server only	npm run dev
Hook DLL only	cargo build --release --package hook
Run the app in dev	npm run tauri dev (builds hook DLL via npm run dev)

Prerequisites

• Nightly Rust (the toolchain is pinned; rustup will sync it automatically).
• Node.js + npm.
• Building the app to run it against the game requires Windows + admin + a live game process — but compiling does not.

Common mistakes

• Running npm run tauri build first. Fails on missing hook.dll. Build the hook crate first (use the script).

• Trusting a piped exit code. npm run tauri build | tail reports the pipe's exit code (0), masking the real failure. Run the command unpiped, or redirect to a file and check $LASTEXITCODE.

• Expecting an updater .msi.zip from a local build. bundle.targets is ["msi"] only. In CI, .github/workflows/release.yaml passes -b msi,updater and the bundler produces the updater zip itself — from the already-Authenticode-signed MSI — then minisigns it, so no step builds that artifact by hand. (Historical note: when updater was still a bundle target, tauri build exited non-zero on success because TAURI_PRIVATE_KEY was missing locally; that no longer happens.)

• Editing scripts/build.ps1 and setting $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'. In Windows PowerShell 5.1 that turns cargo/npm stderr progress lines (e.g. cargo's Finished release banner) into terminating NativeCommandErrors, aborting the script mid-build even on exit code 0. Check $LASTEXITCODE per step instead.

• Adding dev/debug binaries under src-tauri/src/bin/. Tauri v1 bundles EVERY cargo bin target into the MSI (and can mis-pick the main binary, naming the MSI after the wrong exe). Gating bins with required-features does NOT help — the bundler still lists them and packs stale exes from target/release. Put one-off tools in src-tauri/examples/ instead (cargo build --release -p gbfr-logs --example <name>); examples are never bundled.

Artifacts

• target/release/GBFR Logs.exe — the app binary (named from productName, not the crate).
• target/release/hook.dll — the injectable hook.
• target/release/bundle/msi/GBFR Logs_<version>_x64_en-US.msi — the installer.

Note on src-tauri/hook.dll

It is a generated artifact (the build script regenerates it each run). Don't commit it unless the repo already tracks it; treat it like other build output.