Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

Hi y'all,

I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

Windows?
Linux?
other UNIX-alike OSs?

a11e99z <black80 bk.ru> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
wrote:
 Hi y'all,

 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
 definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

 Windows?
 Linux?
 other UNIX-alike OSs?

UPX?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPX
https://linux.die.net/man/1/upx

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:50:58 UTC, a11e99z wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
 wrote:
 Hi y'all,

 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
 definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

 Windows?
 Linux?
 other UNIX-alike OSs?

 UPX?
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPX
 https://linux.die.net/man/1/upx

Thanks for the reply, alle99z. Sorry for my badly-phrased 
question, I think I need to clarify...

What I'm looking for is a system for bundling dlang apps and 
their dependencies for distribution to end users. Hopefully, this 
bundler will:

- install the app in an appropriate place (like C:\Program 
Files\<dlang-app>,
- install libraries/dependencies (such as GtkD) also in an 
appropriate place,
- make any modifications to the system PATH that may be necessary 
for the app to run, and
- handle any other roadblocks that will keep the user from using 
the app.

Whether this is an actual pre-existing application bundler or 
just a list of instructions I can follow so I can end up with a 
distributable one-click-does-it-all (on Windows, at least) 
package.

Similarly, on Linux or other UNIX-alikes, a breakdown of how to 
use apt or something similar to do the same so the user can (for 
instance) just do:

apt-get <app> <appropriate switches>

to install.

a11e99z <black80 bk.ru> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 12:04:16 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:50:58 UTC, a11e99z wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
 wrote:
 Hi y'all,


 What I'm looking for is a system for bundling dlang apps and 
 their dependencies for distribution to end users. Hopefully, 
 this bundler will:

 - install the app in an appropriate place (like C:\Program 
 Files\<dlang-app>,
 - install libraries/dependencies (such as GtkD) also in an 
 appropriate place,
 - make any modifications to the system PATH that may be 
 necessary for the app to run, and
 - handle any other roadblocks that will keep the user from 
 using the app.

 Similarly, on Linux or other UNIX-alikes, a breakdown of how to 
 use apt or something similar to do the same so the user can 
 (for instance) just do:
 apt-get <app> <appropriate switches>
 to install.

so u need installers/installation program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software

well, a long-long time ago I used InstallShield & Wix Toolset for 
Windows only.
I know no one that works with Linux package systems.

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 12:32:58 UTC, a11e99z wrote:

 so u need installers/installation program
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software

 well, a long-long time ago I used InstallShield & Wix Toolset 
 for Windows only.

I'll check those out. Thanks.

bioinfornatics <bioinfornatics fedoraproject.org> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
wrote:
 Hi y'all,

 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
 definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

 Windows?
 Linux?
 other UNIX-alike OSs?

I think I misunderstood your need but are lo looking for dub tool 
with its repository https://code.dlang.org/

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 13:52:48 UTC, bioinfornatics 
wrote:

 I think I misunderstood your need but are lo looking for dub 
 tool with its repository https://code.dlang.org/

I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I tried reading up on 
dub, but got lost in the docs, so I really don't understand what 
all it can do.

bioinfornatics <bioinfornatics fedoraproject.org> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 17:03:51 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 13:52:48 UTC, bioinfornatics 
 wrote:

 I think I misunderstood your need but are lo looking for dub 
 tool with its repository https://code.dlang.org/

 I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I tried reading up on 
 dub, but got lost in the docs, so I really don't understand 
 what all it can do.

dub is more or less like pip from python, npm from javascript and 
so on ...
The code source is here: https://github.com/dlang/dub

you can open an issue there or open a thread about how to write 
package file for dub doc: https://dub.pm/package-format-json)

have a nice day

bioinfornatics <bioinfornatics fedoraproject.org> writes:

On Thursday, 26 September 2019 at 10:07:34 UTC, bioinfornatics 
wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 17:03:51 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
 wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 13:52:48 UTC, 
 bioinfornatics wrote:

 I think I misunderstood your need but are lo looking for dub 
 tool with its repository https://code.dlang.org/

 I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I tried reading up on 
 dub, but got lost in the docs, so I really don't understand 
 what all it can do.

 dub is more or less like pip from python, npm from javascript 
 and so on ...
 The code source is here: https://github.com/dlang/dub

 you can open an issue there or open a thread about how to write 
 package file for dub doc: https://dub.pm/package-format-json)

 have a nice day

I prefer to use meson a builder tool (same category tool as Make, 
CMake ...)
doc: https://mesonbuild.com/Dlang-module.html

Is better as it ease the packaging for fedora, debian, ubuntu and 
so on ...

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Thursday, 26 September 2019 at 10:10:20 UTC, bioinfornatics 
wrote:

 I prefer to use meson a builder tool (same category tool as 
 Make, CMake ...)
 doc: https://mesonbuild.com/Dlang-module.html

 Is better as it ease the packaging for fedora, debian, ubuntu 
 and so on ...

This is good to know. Thank you, bioinfornatics.

snow jhon <sportsdz25 gmail.com> writes:

On Thursday, 26 September 2019 at 10:07:34 UTC, bioinfornatics 
wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 17:03:51 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
 wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 13:52:48 UTC, 
 bioinfornatics wrote:

 I think I misunderstood your need but are lo looking for dub 
 tool with its repository https://code.dlang.org/

 I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I tried reading up on 
 dub, but got lost in the docs, so I really don't understand 
 what all it can do.

 dub is more or less like pip from python, npm from javascript 
 and so on ...
 The code source is here: https://github.com/dlang/dub

 you can open an issue there or open a thread about how to write 
 package file for dub doc: https://dub.pm/package-format-json)

 have a nice day

To be more precise, gtkd is a wrapper for GTK. Gtkd is not 
interesting in this context, but the dependency on gtk. On 
windows you have the possibility to either publish your 
application with GTK dlls or to run gtk setup routine as part of 
your application setup routine or just say in your readme that 
the customer needs to run GTK setup on there own.

snow jhon <sportsdz25 gmail.com> writes:

On Saturday, 28 September 2019 at 16:20:03 UTC, snow jhon wrote:
 On Thursday, 26 September 2019 at 10:07:34 UTC, bioinfornatics 
 wrote:
 [...]

 To be more precise, gtkd is a wrapper for GTK. Gtkd is not 
 interesting in this context, but the dependency on gtk. On 
 windows you have the possibility to either publish your 
 application with GTK dlls or to run gtk setup routine as part 
 of your application setup routine or just say in your readme 
 that the customer needs to run GTK setup on there own.

see: https://bluestacks.vip/ , https://kodi.software/ & 
https://luckypatcher.pro/​​​​​​​

Andre Pany <andre s-e-a-p.de> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 17:03:51 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 13:52:48 UTC, bioinfornatics 
 wrote:

 I think I misunderstood your need but are lo looking for dub 
 tool with its repository https://code.dlang.org/

 I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I tried reading up on 
 dub, but got lost in the docs, so I really don't understand 
 what all it can do.

Dub is a tool for developers, I understand your requirements that 
you want target end customers of your applications. Therefore dub 
is the wrong tool for this job.

To be more precise, gtkd is a wrapper for GTK. Gtkd is not 
interesting in this context, but the dependency on gtk. On 
windows you have the possibility to either publish your 
application with GTK dlls or to run gtk setup routine as part of 
your application setup routine or just say in your readme that 
the customer needs to run GTK setup on there own.

On posix (linus, macos) of course you can also say in your readme 
that the customer should run apt-get ... to install gtk (here I 
do not have much knowledge on packaging).

Kind regards
Andre

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Thursday, 26 September 2019 at 16:30:39 UTC, Andre Pany wrote:

 Dub is a tool for developers, I understand your requirements 
 that you want target end customers of your applications. 
 Therefore dub is the wrong tool for this job.

 To be more precise, gtkd is a wrapper for GTK. Gtkd is not 
 interesting in this context, but the dependency on gtk. On 
 windows you have the possibility to either publish your 
 application with GTK dlls or to run gtk setup routine as part 
 of your application setup routine or just say in your readme 
 that the customer needs to run GTK setup on there own.

 On posix (linus, macos) of course you can also say in your 
 readme that the customer should run apt-get ... to install gtk 
 (here I do not have much knowledge on packaging).

 Kind regards
 Andre

Excellent. That's exactly what I needed to know, Andre. Thanks 
very much.

aberba <karabutaworld gmail.com> writes:

On Thursday, 26 September 2019 at 16:30:39 UTC, Andre Pany wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 17:03:51 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
 wrote:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 13:52:48 UTC, 
 bioinfornatics wrote:

 I think I misunderstood your need but are lo looking for dub 
 tool with its repository https://code.dlang.org/

 I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I tried reading up on 
 dub, but got lost in the docs, so I really don't understand 
 what all it can do.

 Dub is a tool for developers, I understand your requirements 
 that you want target end customers of your applications. 
 Therefore dub is the wrong tool for this job.

 To be more precise, gtkd is a wrapper for GTK. Gtkd is not 
 interesting in this context, but the dependency on gtk. On 
 windows you have the possibility to either publish your 
 application with GTK dlls or to run gtk setup routine as part 
 of your application setup routine or just say in your readme 
 that the customer needs to run GTK setup on there own.

 On posix (linus, macos) of course you can also say in your 
 readme that the customer should run apt-get ... to install gtk 
 (here I do not have much knowledge on packaging).

 Kind regards
 Andre

I will immediately abandon any app that provides this sort of 
incomplete experience to use unless I have my developer hats 
on...or I really have not other choice.

Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
wrote:
 Hi y'all,

 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
 definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

 Windows?
 Linux?
 other UNIX-alike OSs?

For macOS you should distribute a GUI application for end users 
as an application bundle [1]. That's basically a directory 
containing a specific structure. Any dependencies and resources 
like libraries (GTK), images and so on should be bundled inside 
the application bundle. Then package the application bundle 
inside an archive, ideally a Disk Image (DMG) [2]. The 
application would be completely self contained and the user can 
install it by dragging it to the Application directory.

There might be some specific documentation how to bundle a GTK 
application on macOS. I found this [3], don't know if it's good 
or not.

Ideally the application should be distributed on the Mac App 
Store. But that requires a developer account that costs money. It 
also has some restrictions that distribution outside of the Mac 
App Store doesn't have. If you cannot distribute using the Mac 
App Store the next best thing is to notarize the application 
(also requires a paid developer account, as far as I can see) 
before distributing it. Otherwise the user will get a dialog 
complaining that the application is from an unknown developer and 
the user need to explicitly go into System Preferences to allow 
it.

[1] 
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFBundles/BundleTypes/BundleTypes.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000123i-CH101-SW1

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Disk_Image
[3] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk-mac-bundler

--
/Jacob Carlborg

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Friday, 27 September 2019 at 12:42:56 UTC, Jacob Carlborg 
wrote:

 For macOS you should distribute a GUI application for end users 
 as an application bundle [1]. That's basically a directory 
 containing a specific structure. Any dependencies and resources 
 like libraries (GTK), images and so on should be bundled inside 
 the application bundle. Then package the application bundle 
 inside an archive, ideally a Disk Image (DMG) [2]. The 
 application would be completely self contained and the user can 
 install it by dragging it to the Application directory.

 There might be some specific documentation how to bundle a GTK 
 application on macOS. I found this [3], don't know if it's good 
 or not.

 Ideally the application should be distributed on the Mac App 
 Store. But that requires a developer account that costs money. 
 It also has some restrictions that distribution outside of the 
 Mac App Store doesn't have. If you cannot distribute using the 
 Mac App Store the next best thing is to notarize the 
 application (also requires a paid developer account, as far as 
 I can see) before distributing it. Otherwise the user will get 
 a dialog complaining that the application is from an unknown 
 developer and the user need to explicitly go into System 
 Preferences to allow it.

 [1] 
 https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFBundles/BundleTypes/BundleTypes.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000123i-CH101-SW1

 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Disk_Image
 [3] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk-mac-bundler

 --
 /Jacob Carlborg

Excellent, Jacob. Thanks for all that.

Hossain Adnan <relay.public.adnan outlook.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
wrote:
 Hi y'all,

 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
 definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

 Linux?

For Linux there are 3 new options:

1. Appimages (https://appimage.org/): This is very similar to 
Window's msi installer. You can host the app installer binary in 
bintray or in your website.

2. Flatpaks (https://flatpak.org/): Flatpak is quickly becoming 
more and more popular as it provides higher level customization 
for desktop applications in Linux. The flatpak API is not trivial 
but there are tutorials available to use flatpak and meson. A 
well known Linux application named Tilix 
(https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix) has a flatpak repo 
(https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/tree/master/experimental/flatpak).

3. Snap (https://snapcraft.io/): Backed by Cannonical, snap 
provides a really easy way to distribute applications in Linux. I 
personally think Snaps are easier to create although I haven't 
invested time in distributing an app using snap. DMD, Dub and LDC 
are also shipped with it.

There are tutorials for using all of those three online, but not 
specific to Dlang. But if you use the Meson build system there 
are plenty of tutorials available.

drug <drug2004 bk.ru> writes:

28.09.2019 5:15, Hossain Adnan пишет:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant wrote:
 Hi y'all,

 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
 definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

 
 Linux?

 
 For Linux there are 3 new options:
 
 1. Appimages (https://appimage.org/): This is very similar to Window's 
 msi installer. You can host the app installer binary in bintray or in 
 your website.
 
 2. Flatpaks (https://flatpak.org/): Flatpak is quickly becoming more and 
 more popular as it provides higher level customization for desktop 
 applications in Linux. The flatpak API is not trivial but there are 
 tutorials available to use flatpak and meson. A well known Linux 
 application named Tilix (https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix) has a flatpak 
 repo (https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/tree/master/experimental/flatpak).
 
 3. Snap (https://snapcraft.io/): Backed by Cannonical, snap provides a 
 really easy way to distribute applications in Linux. I personally think 
 Snaps are easier to create although I haven't invested time in 
 distributing an app using snap. DMD, Dub and LDC are also shipped with it.
 
 There are tutorials for using all of those three online, but not 
 specific to Dlang. But if you use the Meson build system there are 
 plenty of tutorials available.
 

don't you consider deb and rpm as options?

bachmeier <no spam.net> writes:

On Saturday, 28 September 2019 at 09:00:51 UTC, drug wrote:
 28.09.2019 5:15, Hossain Adnan пишет:
 On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 11:46:04 UTC, Ron Tarrant 
 wrote:
 Hi y'all,

 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing 
 definitive. Are there any articles for how to do this for:

 
 Linux?

 
 For Linux there are 3 new options:
 
 1. Appimages (https://appimage.org/): This is very similar to 
 Window's msi installer. You can host the app installer binary 
 in bintray or in your website.
 
 2. Flatpaks (https://flatpak.org/): Flatpak is quickly 
 becoming more and more popular as it provides higher level 
 customization for desktop applications in Linux. The flatpak 
 API is not trivial but there are tutorials available to use 
 flatpak and meson. A well known Linux application named Tilix 
 (https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix) has a flatpak repo 
 (https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/tree/master/experimental/flatpak).
 
 3. Snap (https://snapcraft.io/): Backed by Cannonical, snap 
 provides a really easy way to distribute applications in 
 Linux. I personally think Snaps are easier to create although 
 I haven't invested time in distributing an app using snap. 
 DMD, Dub and LDC are also shipped with it.
 
 There are tutorials for using all of those three online, but 
 not specific to Dlang. But if you use the Meson build system 
 there are plenty of tutorials available.
 

 don't you consider deb and rpm as options?

My understanding is that the goal is to move away from 
distribution-specific packaging with these projects.

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Saturday, 28 September 2019 at 02:15:42 UTC, Hossain Adnan 
wrote:

 For Linux there are 3 new options:

 (things omitted)
 There are tutorials for using all of those three online, but 
 not specific to Dlang. But if you use the Meson build system 
 there are plenty of tutorials available.

Thanks Hossian. This helps a lot.

Jordi Sayol <g.sayol gmail.com> writes:

El 25/9/19 a les 13:46, Ron Tarrant via Digitalmars-d-learn ha escrit:
 Hi y'all,
 
 I've been Googling how to do this, but coming up with nothing definitive. Are
there any articles for how to do this for:
 
 Windows?
 Linux?
 other UNIX-alike OSs?

On Bebian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint, You have "d-apt" <https://d-apt.sourceforge.io/>

If you static links your d program, you don't need any package from it at
runtime.
But if you dynamic links it, you've runtime libraries for GtkD "libgtkd3-nn"
and TkD "libtkd-nn" on "d-apt".
"nn" on library name should be replaced with the DMD major version (without
initial zero). 
i.e. For the last DMD version, "libgtkd3-88" or "libtkd-88".

Ron Tarrant <rontarrant gmail.com> writes:

On Saturday, 28 September 2019 at 08:52:36 UTC, Jordi Sayol wrote:

 On Bebian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint, You have "d-apt" 
 <https://d-apt.sourceforge.io/>

This sounds so appropriate for a D application. :)

 If you static links your d program, you don't need any package 
 from it at runtime.
 But if you dynamic links it, you've runtime libraries for GtkD 
 "libgtkd3-nn" and TkD "libtkd-nn" on "d-apt".
 "nn" on library name should be replaced with the DMD major 
 version (without initial zero).
 i.e. For the last DMD version, "libgtkd3-88" or "libtkd-88".

Thank you for filling in some blanks for me.