Enhancement: Native Executable Packaging on Mac / Windows / Linux

[AndyObtiva]

I am curious if there will be future support for packaging Ruby apps built with wxruby3 as native executables on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

For example, Glimmer DSL for SWT has supported native executable/installer packaging for a number of years now, enabling packaging Ruby apps as APP/DMG/PKG on Mac, EXE/MSI on Windows, and DEB/RPM on Linux. That way, a developer can give people an installer and they are able to install an app without needing to install JRuby or JRuby dependencies like the JVM explicitly.

It would be great if CRuby would support something like that in wxWidgets in the future.

Currently, Glimmer DSL for LibUI supports CRuby native executable packaging on Windows via OCRAN:
https://github.com/Largo/ocran

That might work for wxruby3 too.

Here are packaging ideas for Glimmer DSL for LibUI at the moment:
https://github.com/AndyObtiva/glimmer-dsl-libui#packaging

It would be awesome of wxruby3 could eventually support native executable packaging on Mac, Windows, and Linux in the future.

[mcorino]

I would definitely like it if that kind of support became available at some point but it is something that is not on my short (or even medium) term action list.That is partly because until now I have not found any tools to do this that filled me with any confidence (so I did already take a look). Especially with regard to doing this in a platform independent manner (I will have a look at the tools you mentioned).I am prepared to support anybody that has some ideas as to contributing this however.On 14 Dec 2024 10:18, Andy Maleh ***@***.***> wrote: I am curious if there will be future support for packaging Ruby apps built with wxruby3 as native executables on Mac, Windows, and Linux. For example, Glimmer DSL for SWT has supported native executable/installer packaging for a number of years now, enabling packaging Ruby apps as APP/DMG/PKG on Mac, EXE/MSI on Windows, and DEB/RPM on Linux. That way, a developer can give people an installer and they are able to install an app without needing to install JRuby or JRuby dependencies like the JVM explicitly. It would be great if CRuby would support something like that in wxWidgets in the future. Currently, Glimmer DSL for LibUI supports CRuby native executable packaging on Windows via OCRAN: https://github.com/Largo/ocran That might work for wxruby3 too. Here are packaging ideas for Glimmer DSL for LibUI at the moment: https://github.com/AndyObtiva/glimmer-dsl-libui#packaging It would be awesome of wxruby3 could eventually support native executable packaging on Mac, Windows, and Linux in the future. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ablzh]

Hi @mcorino and @AndyObtiva ,

Thank you for the great work with GUI lib for Ruby. I’ve been following this discussion and would like to pick this up as I’m very interested in solving the packaging and distribution challenge for Ruby GUI apps.

As @mcorino mentioned, finding a reliable, cross-platform tool is the main hurdle. In my view, the lack of a "standard" way to deliver apps (with code signing and seamless updates) is what currently holds Ruby back on the desktop.

I've been looking into Tebako as a modern alternative to older tools. It seems to be the most promising direction for creating stable, standalone runtimes.

My goal is to propose and work on a workflow that covers:

• Robust Packaging: Using Tebako (or similar) to create the executable.
• Smooth Distribution: Providing a proper installer and an auto-update mechanism (so users don't have to reinstall the whole app every time).
• Security/Trust: Addressing code signing to avoid antivirus flags, which is crucial for "professional" delivery.

@mcorino, since you mentioned you're looking for a solution that "fills you with confidence," do you have any specific technical requirements or concerns regarding Tebako? I’d like to ensure the direction I take aligns with the project’s standards before I dive deeper.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts!

[mcorino]

Afaict Tebako seems an interesting and ambitious project although I'm not sure how well it aligns with desktop applications like wxRuby3 apps.
As far as app projects go it seems to concentrate on 'Rails'-type apps which will not align completely with wxRuby3 apps. For one thing the, fairly heavy, native platform dependency wxRuby3 has with regard to the GUI libraries is something that most likely is going cause issues. Because of the fairly large differences in library and tools version alignments between OS distros wxRuby requires exactly matching platform (distro) specific native extension libraries. The wxRuby3 project necessarily only provides prebuilt packages for a rather restricted set of platform versions. How would a generic self executing package deal with that?

Personally I'm not that interested in the 'self executing' part. For me it seems that tools like Tebako are trying to solve two issues (packaging and containment) at the same time that may be best solved separately.
My thinking about this thus far has therefor been focused on the (un-)packaging (or packaging/installing) leaving containment to be solved by some other system (VM, docker-type container, ...).

[ablzh]

Hi @mcorino,

Thanks for the comments. I’ve been thinking about the points raised here, and I want to share where I’m coming from.

I’m currently an MIS (Master of Information Systems) student, and I’m considering taking on this packaging/distribution challenge as my Capstone project.

My thoughts on this:

I’m not looking to build a new tool from scratch. Instead, I want to see if I can automate a standard workflow that handles the "messy" parts: collecting native dependencies, the Ruby interpreter, and generating actual installers (EXE for Windows, DMG for Mac, and AppImage for Linux).

Since this is driven by my studies and personal interest, I’ll be moving at a "turtle's pace". I don't have much free time, and if the university doesn't approve this topic for my Capstone, I'm not sure I'll have the energy to complete it, so I can't promise that I'll succeed. But I want to document steps so that even if I move slowly, the results are useful for the community.

I agree that Tebako or Ocran aren't a panacea on their own. I'm interested in creating a documented toolkit for creating native executables for Mac, Windows, and Linux that doesn't feel like a "hacking" but a reliable process.

[rubyFeedback]

I'm interested in creating a documented toolkit for creating native executables for Mac, Windows, and Linux

Has anyone considered spinel yet?

https://github.com/matz/spinel

I have not used it myself yet, but spinel claims it can create e. g. standalone .exe files on windows (I think). Could this be an option?

One issue I had was with the documentation. Right now the documentation in spinel is a bit sparse, or only understandable to folks with solid C knowledge, in my opinion.