Binaries for Linux and Mac

[tomtom]

Hello,

I am currently considering to use Rebol for a small app that I am planning to write.

Rebol looks like the right thing, but I am not yet sure whether I should go for it or not.

What I'd like to know is whether I can pack my script into binaries for Linux and Mac. (I've already read some of the threads regarding executables for Windows.)

As this is going to be my first app in Rebol, and I am not planning to make any money with it, I can't spend any money on the SDK. Is there any way to achieve this with third-party tools?

I'd really love to provide users of other OS with the same comfortable and convenient package that I would offer to Windows users.

Thanks.

Tom

[Graham]

There are a couple of third party = free tools that do this.

Never used them but I hear that they work okay.

[tomtom]

Hi Graham,

Would you mind to share the names of these tools with me? If you don't want to post them here, could you send me a private message?

Thanks.

[Graham]

Tomtom

A search for "encap" on this forum (!) show this thread

[url]http://www.reboltalk.com/forum/index.php/topic,7.0.html[/url]

[tomtom]

Graham

I have already searched this forum (!) before I made my posting. Maybe I should have also mentioned once more that I am not trying to encap for Windows, since I have already found a solution for that.

All I can see is that Rebox should be able to encap on Linux too. The problem is just that there is no way to download Rebox for Linux.

There also seems to be Grebox, but only available for Windows.

In short, my problem is still not solved.

A search on this forum (!) for "encap linux" and "encap mac" does not return any matches.

As I see it, there is currently not way to encap for all platforms... off to Java then.

[Gabriele]

On the Mac, you might be able to create a bundle without the need for any special tool. I haven't tried, but at worst you need a small wrapper C program.

On Linux, you could create a bash script that dumps rebol and your script to /tmp then runs it.

Anyway... getting the SDK will cost you much less than using Java.

[notchent]

Hi Tom,

I did a Google search for "self extracting executable linux", and this was the second link:

    http://linux.org.mt/article/selfextract

Perhaps that provides the information you're looking for?  If I understand correctly, Mac also includes gzip intalled by default, so that may be a solution for Mac too...

[notchent]

To create a self-extracting Rebol executable in Linux, first create a .tgz file containing all the files you want to distribute (the Rebol interpreter, your script(s), any external binary files, etc.).  For the purposes of this example, name that bundle "rebol_files.tgz".  Next, create a text file containing the following code.  For the purpose of this example, save this script file as "sh_commands":

   #!/bin/sh
   echo ""
   echo "Running... please wait"
   echo ""
   SKIP=`awk '/^__REBOL_ARCHIVE__/ { print NR + 1; exit 0; }' $0`
   tail +$SKIP $0 | tar xz   
   exit 0
   __REBOL_ARCHIVE__

Finally, use the following command to combine the above script file with the bundled .tgz file:

   cat sh_commands rebol_files.tgz > rebol_program.sh

The above line will create a single executable file named "rebol_program.sh" that can be distributed and run by end users.  The user will have to set the file permissions for rebol_program.sh to executable before running it, or execute it using the syntax "sh rebol_program.sh".  For more information about using this technique to create self-extracting Linux executables, see the tutorial at http://linux.org.mt/article/selfextract .

[old_mac]

On the Mac side try the program Platypus. It wraps up most every type of script you can imagine to an application bundle, except Rebol.  However if you give it the correct path to the REBOL interpreter it should work according to the author.

It is a nice tool and it's free!

http://sveinbjorn.org/software

Cheers

Chris

[kpeters]

I just tried Platypus for wrapping up Rebview, a script and some additional files and it worked like a charm. Had my "application" up and running in about 2 minutes. Once you know what you are doing, you can produce a runnable in about 20 seconds or less ...

Just pick one of the supported script types and overwrite the location of their interpreter with the location of your Rebol executable.