Bundling

A common task for software developers is to make their projects more accessible to non-developers, for example by creating binary releases.

clang-build carries the following opinion: non-system packages should work on their own, i.e. they should bring their own dependencies with them. This means that a redistributable bundle can simply be a zip archive.

Build-folder binary bundle

You can use the --bundle flag to tell clang-build to gather all dependencies of executable and shared library targets next to them into their respective build folders. They should then be usable on their own, i.e. without manually gathering additional binaries.

For example, the binary build folders on Linux may then look as follows:

build
├── myexe/default/bin
|   ├── myexe
|   ├── libA.so
|   └── libB.so
├── libA/default/bin
|   ├── libA.so
|   └── libB.so
└── libB/default/bin
    └── libB.so

On Linux and OSX, the -rpath flag is automatically used to cause those targets to search for dependencies in their own directory.

Regardless of whether you use Linux, OSX or Windows, you can then run your executables without having to make sure that the right dependencies are found.

Redistributable bundle

This feature is still experimental and not fully implemented

A redistributable bundle is what someone would need to run an executable or use a library. A main purpose is to create a bundle which will make it easy for someone to create e.g. a system package or an installer out of it.

Each target gathers from itself and its dependencies, depending on its type:

• For an executable
  • the executable
  • shared library dependencies
  • runtime files (config, resource, shaders, ...)
• For a shared library
  • the shared library
  • shared library dependencies
  • own header files and those of dependencies
  • usage instructions (compiler/linker flags)
• For a static library
  • the static library
  • shared library dependencies
  • own header files and those of dependencies
  • usage instructions (compiler/linker flags)
• For a header only library
  • own header files and those of dependencies
  • usage instructions (compiler/linker flags)

On OSX, this will be a .app folder. On Linux and Windows, this will be a regular folder with a structure

build/myexe/default/redistributable
├── README.md
├── bin
|   ├── myexe
|   ├── libA.so
|   └── libB.so
└── res
    ├── config.toml
    └── img
        ├── logo.icns
        └── background.png

build/libA/default/redistributable
├── instructions.toml
├── README.md
├── bin
|   ├── libA.so
|   └── libB.so
└── include
    ├── libA
    |   └── libA.hpp
    └── libB
        └── libB.hpp