I am able to compile and create executables with Vala programming language and Gtk. The GUI executables run okay from command line with command:
./myGuiAppl
However, when I double click on them in file managers, they do not run. It seems they are seen as libraries and not as executables. Where is the problem and how can it be solved?
This is probably a design choice by file managers. On Windows it is normal to run .exe files from Windows Explorer, but on Linux applications are usually run via .desktop files from the desktop environment or from the terminal.
There is nothing you can do from a programming standpoint. Ask the vendor of your file manager if you think this should be possible.
Related
I have a program that I have developed for mac osx. When the program is run from within Qt creator, a log file and a config.cfg file are created in the myapp.app/Contents/MacOS folder, alongside the executable. This is the correct behaviour, the program needs these files.
When I deploy the app to run standalone (by linking the required libraries using macdeploymentqt tool) the app launches and runs correctly however the log and config.cfg file do not get written to the myapp.app/Contents/MacOS folder and so settings can't be read in.
Is there anyway to get around this? Has anyone encountered this before?
Mitch
osx will likely not allow you writing to your bundle location on installed apps, for security reasons and because it may conflict when multiple users are using your app.
To be cross platform, you could write instead to:
QStandardPaths::writableLocation(QStandardPaths::AppLocalDataLocation)
which resolves to
~/Library/Application Support/<APPNAME>
and
C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/<APPNAME>
or equivalent on windows.
You're never supposed to write to the application bundle, whether on Mac or on Windows. Even on Windows, it will not work if your user isn't an administrator. This idea last made sense on Windows 95 - not even on Windows NT. Don't do it.
Please how do I make a multi program installer? I mean I have 3 .exe programs packed in an .ISO file with an autorun.inf, let's suppose the first is CS_1.6_installer.exe CSS_installer.exe and CS_GO_installer.exe I want to make a gui program to make me choose which CS* installer I want to choose?
Is there any program or a programs code source?
What you need is basically a suite installation. The link I included shows how to do this with Advanced Installer (Disclaimer: I work on this tool).
I have standard instalations of some programs, and althou they are freeware and i can download them and install on any machine, things are not that easy always. When system crash and i dont have working machine or working internet connection or lan card or drivers for lan card i always struggle to find them and make them work if some dependency file is not on that version of windows.
What i need is to know is how can i make applications portable so i can run them from my usb or just copy them from my usb on pc and run, what dependency files application require, and what files and where specific application install?
It's a complicated story but let's try to summarize. Starts from the part "why?"
I'm an obsessive guy who seriously "hates" installers. I love to have a clean system without bloated in files reg entries and DLL's. Thats why I make nearly all (at least 97%) of programs that I use portable. I made more than 600 up to today and what I can say is;
You need:
1- A program to watch file system (what included after installation)
I use this. Simple and straight (sorry not freeware, but you can find tons of alternates)
http://www.samsunsegman.com/um/
2- A program to watch registry (what changed or included after installation)
I use this in HTML mode. Free fast and simple. And portable in nature.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/regshot/
Now scan the system with these 2, and than run the installer. After open the installed program and make your settings as you want. And than use this 2 program to find the added files and registry entries.
For files, delete them to trash can and take them back from trash in batch (easy to do like that) to the folder of application.
Registry, open the related branches in registry, delete any entries containing addressings like (plugins folder = c:\prog.... etc) After right click on main branch and select export. This is your reg settings...
3- Download this program http://ctuser.net/?reg2exe
This will convert your reg file to an exe file.
4- Download this application http://download.cnet.com/FilePacker/3000-2216_4-10414081.html
Note: Click on "Direct Download Link" if not you'll cnet will welcome you with their installer :)
And with this program (I use this because have no interference with any application) pack the program that you want to make portable. In wizard, first choose your reg-exe file after main programs file. Launcher will execute them with this order. And in setting choose "delete after terminate" will delete the extracted files on exit.
You can discover the further details. This helps you to portabilitize nearly 75% of simple applications.
5- For complicated programs or complicated needs you even can make home made loaders like
Before executing the app, put the user files under appdata folder (that I hate)
Put settings in registry (even with dynamically modified "path" addresses)
Choose which to execute (x86 or x64)
Execute in admin mode if needed
Execute the app... And when application is terminated...
Delete the settings from registry
Take the user files from appdata folder and put under programs folder (usb etc) back.
Delete left-over files under the system...
I just wrote these last ones to make you understand how far you can go. And for all these extra tricks, I use just and just bat files. And I convert them to exe also with this software. http://www.f2ko.de/programs.php?lang=en&pid=b2e (also free)
All the softwares that I use except "uninstall manager" are free. And with this technique, amazing but some of programs are running even faster.
Actually you can just use JauntePE or portable apps packer things but... Jaunte and similar sandbox making programs are so slow and not compatible with all. Even causing crashes. Portable apps approach is a bit bloated regarding to my strict spped and size standards. That's why I do it myself about for 10 years (yes even people was not talking about portability)
Note: I'm not a programmer, and you also don't need to be to do these.
I never released my portables, and you also shouldn't (read EULA's) for respect to authors.
But never forget to demand portable version from all authors. Force them to quit installers ;)
Best regards
inovasyon did a great job!
If you want to make some portable app that will work on every computer you move it to, then 99.9% of apps can be made portable.
If you also expect the app to not leave any files, folders or registry entries behind and not change or break things on the host PC's setup, then that limits things a bit further.
Apps requiring admin privileges to write to protected areas of the registry or file system will break when used on PCs with locked-down privileges.
Apps requiring services to be installed on the host PC will often leave them behind.
You must to know there are apps that are locked to specific PCs - Microsoft's recent versions of Office are a great example of this. They simply will not run when moved to another PC.
Also, you'll need some tools for making portable app: cameyo, thinapp, boxedapp, portableapps, spoon, app-v and other.
Portable applications will run from a flash drive, and from the computer.
Good Luck!
Here is a primer for setting up a portable app using the PortableApps.com tools. They have a page for developers that is quite helpful for some specifics, but the overall process is not well summarized. Here is the general outline for creating a portable application:
1. Investigate your application's footprints
Find all the files, registry locations and settings of the application you want to make portable (make use of point (1) and (2) in inovasyon's answer, and maybe take a look at Zsoft). It is usally a good idea to fire-up a virtual machine and track the application's changes without much clutter.
2. The PortableApp generator
Download, extract, and open the PortableApps.com Platform, and follow [The system tray icon] →[Apps] →[Get More Apps] →[By Category] to install the PortableApps.com Launcher, and NSIS (Unicode) needed to Portabilize your app. Alternatively, but with some added hassle, download both the PortableApps.com Launcher and NSIS Portable (Unicode version) as standalones.
You can now compile a project by running the PortableApps.com Launcher and pointing it to your project.
3. PortableApp layout and structure
Download the PortableApp.com Application Template (search for it here) to structure the data and files obtained in (1.) according to the specifications. Also, download some apps from portableapps.com for some practical examples of how they are structured, and to learn more about the struggles of portability (such as the substitution of drive letters in settings files to correspond to the movement of a portable drive).
As a "Hello World" example, try portability this simple program: helloworld.bat, with content:
#echo off
echo Hello World > log.txt
It writes all local environmental variables to the log file log.txt. You can play around a bit by trying to writing files to an %APPDATA% subdirectory and see if you can make your project redirect it to a portable directory.
4. Additional usage
If you need to do some additional coding that is not achievable with the default .ini capabilities (such as forcing only one instance of an app), add a NSIS script with file location App\AppInfo\Launcher\Custom.nsh to your project. Note that PortableApps.com's custom code guide incorrectly states the file location as Other\Source\Custom.nsh. It is also quite unhelpful regarding the layout of this script. Rather look at examples from other Apps and learn the NSIS syntax by Google-ing a bit.
I'm trying to release a package for my appjs app but there doesn't seem to be any easy way for end users to "just run" the application without a terminal.
Is there anyway to do this that is fool proof?
So I've found an easy way to do this, not necessarily the easiest way but it works.
OSx
I use this bash script to convert my folder to a .app folder (which is all OSx needs apparently)
Windows
and on Windows I use IsTools to create my in/un-staller and shortcuts.
Linux
I've not found an easy peasy way to do this on Linux yet but we don't have a customer base on Linux so it doesn't matter. I have however found this but it seems awefully convoluted. Shan't bother for now.
If you download the distributable for your platform from: http://appjs.org/#download. Then it includes a launch script -- app.exe for windows and app.sh for linux / mac os which launches everything without a console.
There is also an addition to appjs that installs appjs as a platform feature (rather than having the whole runtime in each application you distribute). Using this you can compile your application into a single file which you can then distribute to end users. This functionality is being actively developed and improved. http://appjs.delightfulsoftware.com/. see also screenshot tour for windows: http://appjs.delightfulsoftware.com/win.htm and for ubuntu linux: http://appjs.delightfulsoftware.com/ubuntu.htm.
/Simon
I want to distribute a setup in a self extracting executable form. I want to pack versions for 32 bit and 64 windows. So I have a program which first checks the version of Windows OS running and then launches the correct program. SO I have a directory structure like this
DetermineOS.exe
Win32\Win32Setup.exe
Win32\supporting win32 files
Win64\Win64Setup.exe
Win64\Supporting win64 files
I want to pack them in a bundle called something like install.exe. When the user clicks install.exe it will extract this directory structure to the temp location and launch DetermineOS.exe which will then launch the correct setup.exe
Will NSIS be the easiest way to go? Would this be a compicated NSIS script? Thanks.
It sounds to me that the only thing you want to get out of it is to extract to the %TEMP% location and run a certain exe file. If that's the case, I'm not sure NSIS is the easiest way to go. Most of the archives support self-extraction and running a command on extraction-complete. For instance, WinRAR and 7z have such modules. And my gut feeling is this option seems to be easier than NSIS.
Different bootstrappers also support this scenario. For instance, Visual Studio bootstrapper or dotNetInstaller. I've recently blogged about this simplest case with dotNetInstaller.
Hope this helps.
You could put the different images (executables) in the "root" image and extract and run the appropriate image as needed (many Sysinternals tools do this - e.g. the "root" application embedds the drivers for 32 and 64 bit).