PR #50278 | Electron Releases

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#50278: refactor: replace `CHILD_PLUGIN` with `CHILD_EMBEDDER_FIRST` on macOS

Merged

codebytere

Created: Mar 16, 2026, 6:12:32 AM

Merged: Mar 17, 2026, 1:41:16 PM

2 comments

Target: main

Description of Change

Closes #50271

Chromium removed upstream support for child plugin processes without library validation in https://crbug.com/461717105, which we patched back via feat_restore_macos_child_plugin_process.patch.

Chromium's CHILD_EMBEDDER_FIRST mechanism already provides the right extensibility point for this: values > CHILD_EMBEDDER_FIRST are reserved for embedders and resolved via ContentBrowserClient::GetChildProcessSuffix(). Chrome itself uses this pattern for its Alerts helper process.

This commit replaces the Chromium patch with an Electron-native implementation.

Tested with:

const { app, utilityProcess } = require('electron');

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  const child = utilityProcess.fork('/dev/null', [], {
    allowLoadingUnsignedLibraries: true
  });

  child.on('spawn', () => {
    const { execSync } = require('child_process');
    // The process should be running as "Electron Helper (Plugin)"
    console.log(execSync(`ps aux | grep "Helper (Plugin)"`).toString());
    process.exit(0);
  });
})

Output

codebytere       52527   0.0  0.0 410060320     32   ??  S    12:05PM   0:00.00 /Users/codebytere/Developer/electron-gn/src/out/Testing/Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper (Plugin).app/Contents/MacOS/Electron Helper (Plugin) --type=utility --utility-sub-type=node.mojom.NodeService --lang=en-US --service-sandbox-type=none --user-data-dir=/Users/codebytere/Library/Application Support/royal-quiver-resolve-52r5b --shared-files --field-trial-handle=1718379636,r,2625428615576881707,17048915519166431862,262144 --enable-features=PdfUseShowSaveFilePicker,ScreenCaptureKitPickerScreen,ScreenCaptureKitStreamPickerSonoma --disable-features=DropInputEventsWhilePaintHolding,LocalNetworkAccessChecks,MacWebContentsOcclusion,ScreenAIOCREnabled,SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,TimeoutHangingVideoCaptureStarts,TraceSiteInstanceGetProcessCreation --variations-seed-version --pseudonymization-salt-handle=1935764596,r,4873601938494529188,8777684506488938851,4 --trace-process-track-uuid=4343401777029354128
codebytere       12125   0.0  0.1 1890425968  62336   ??  S     9:56AM   0:00.69 /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper (Plugin).app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper (Plugin) /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/extensions/markdown-language-features/dist/serverWorkerMain --node-ipc --clientProcessId=7833

Checklist

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npm test passes
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Release Notes

Notes: none

Backports

42-x-y

In-flight

PR Number

#50321

Waiting to be merged

Semver Impact

Major

Breaking changes

Minor

New features

Patch

Bug fixes

None

Docs, tests, etc.

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