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133 lines
4.6 KiB
133 lines
4.6 KiB
--- |
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short-description: Creating universal Linux binaries |
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... |
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# Creating Linux binaries |
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Creating Linux binaries that can be downloaded and run on any distro |
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(like .dmg packages for OSX or .exe installers for Windows) has |
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traditionally been difficult. This is even more tricky if you want to |
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use modern compilers and features, which is especially desired in game |
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development. There is still no simple turn-key solution for this |
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problem but with a bit of setup it can be relatively straightforward. |
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## Installing system and GCC |
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First you need to do a fresh operating system install. You can use |
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spare hardware, VirtualBox, cloud or whatever you want. Note that the |
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distro you install must be *at least as old* as the oldest release you |
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wish to support. Debian stable is usually a good choice, though |
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immediately after its release you might want to use Debian oldstable |
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or the previous Ubuntu LTS. The oldest supported version of CentOS is |
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also a good choice. |
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Once you have installed the system, you need to install |
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build-dependencies for GCC. In Debian-based distros this can be done |
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with the following commands: |
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```console |
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$ apt-get build-dep g++ |
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$ apt-get install pkg-config libgmp-dev libmpfr-dev libmpc-dev |
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``` |
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Then create a `src` subdirectory in your home directory. Copy-paste |
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the following into `install_gcc.sh` and execute it. |
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```bash |
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#!/bin/sh |
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wget ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/unix/languages/gcc/releases/gcc-4.9.2/gcc-4.9.2.tar.bz2 |
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tar xf gcc-4.9.2.tar.bz2 |
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mkdir objdir |
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cd objdir |
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../gcc-4.9.2/configure --disable-bootstrap --prefix=${HOME}/devroot \ |
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--disable-multilib --enable-languages=c,c++ |
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make -j 4 |
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make install-strip |
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ln -s gcc ${HOME}/devroot/bin/cc |
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``` |
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Then finally add the following lines to your `.bashrc`. |
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```console |
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$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${HOME}/devroot/lib |
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$ export PATH=${HOME}/devroot/bin:$PATH |
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$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=${HOME}/devroot/lib/pkgconfig |
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``` |
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Log out and back in and now your build environment is ready to use. |
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## Adding other tools |
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Old distros might have too old versions of some tools. For Meson this |
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could include Python 3 and Ninja. If this is the case you need to |
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download, build and install new versions into `~/devroot` in the usual |
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way. |
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## Adding dependencies |
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You want to embed and statically link every dependency you can |
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(especially C++ dependencies). Meson's [Wrap package |
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manager](Wrap-dependency-system-manual.md) might be of use here. This |
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is equivalent to what you would do on Windows, OSX, Android etc. |
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Sometimes static linking is not possible. In these cases you need to |
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copy the .so files inside your package. Let's use SDL2 as an example. |
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First we download and install it as usual giving it our custom install |
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prefix (that is, `./configure --prefix=${HOME}/devroot`). This makes |
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Meson's dependency detector pick it up automatically. |
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## Building and installing |
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Building happens in much the same way as normally. There are just two |
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things to note. First, you must tell GCC to link the C++ standard |
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library statically. If you don't then your app is guaranteed to break |
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as different distros have binary-incompatible C++ libraries. The |
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second thing is that you need to point your install prefix to some |
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empty staging area. Here's the Meson command to do that: |
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```console |
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$ LDFLAGS=-static-libstdc++ meson --prefix=/tmp/myapp <other args> |
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``` |
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The aim is to put the executable in `/tmp/myapp/bin` and shared |
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libraries to `/tmp/myapp/lib`. The next thing you need is the |
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embedder. It takes your dependencies (in this case only |
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`libSDL2-2.0.so.0`) and copies them in the lib directory. Depending on |
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your use case you can either copy the files by hand or write a script |
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that parses the output of `ldd binary_file`. Be sure not to copy |
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system libraries (`libc`, `libpthread`, `libm` etc). For an example, |
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see the [sample |
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project](https://github.com/jpakkane/meson/tree/master/manual%20tests/4%20standalone%20binaries). |
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Make the script run during install with this: |
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```meson |
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[[#meson.add_install_script]]('linux_bundler.sh') |
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``` |
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## Final steps |
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If you try to run the program now it will most likely fail to start or |
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crashes. The reason for this is that the system does not know that the |
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executable needs libraries from the `lib` directory. The solution for |
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this is a simple wrapper script. Create a script called `myapp.sh` |
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with the following content: |
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```bash |
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#!/bin/bash |
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cd "${0%/*}" |
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export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(pwd)/lib" |
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bin/myapp |
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``` |
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Install it with this Meson snippet: |
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```meson |
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[[#install_data]]('myapp.sh', install_dir : '.') |
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``` |
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And now you are done. Zip up your `/tmp/myapp` directory and you have |
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a working binary ready for deployment. To run the program, just unzip |
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the file and run `myapp.sh`.
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