Background, I currently use Izpack for my Windows installer, I bundle a java runtime and use winrun4j as a wrapper both for the installation and the actual program once installed. It worked for a long time but there are a number of problems with the installer that I have not been able to solve and have been looking to replace it.
Oracle now provide the JPackage installer so it seems like a sensible choice. But the folder structure created by the installer is different to what I currently have, I have a number of config and non java files and I have not been able to get the .exe that JPackage creates to do anything.
So is it possible to use JPackage to create the installer but in a strcuture better matching my existing structure, and use continue to use WInRun4j to actyally run my application
Existing Folder Structure
ROOT
---App.exe
---Config Files
---lib
-------jar files
---JVM64
------- Java runtime
---help
JPackage structure
ROOT
---App.exe
---Runtime Dlls
---app
----- jar files
Config files
--runtime
------Java runtime
------Runtime Dlls (again)
The structure of directories generated by jpackage is mainly set up for you and does not seem possible to change, and makes installation of Java app dependencies very easy with self contained JRE. The basic structure for Windows is as you say:
ROOT
---App.exe (for --main-class parameter)
---xyz.exe (for each --add-launcher parameter)
---Runtime Dlls (these appear to be unused except for applauncher.dll, see SO 62607300)
---app/
------App.cfg (for --main-class)
------xyz.cfg (for per --add-launcher)
---runtime/
------Java runtime
------Runtime Dlls
With --input and --main-jar params you are free to setup additional directory structure under app/ folder for anything else you want for your application. So if you used lib/myappjar.jar it would add:
---app/
-------lib/
----------myappjar.jar
If you used --input build\mypath it would copy the entire tree of files under that folder, so if build\mypath dir contained
bin/
---Scripts
---xyz.properties
README.txt
Then app would also contain:
---app/
------bin/
---------Scripts
---------xyz.properties
------README.txt
By the way the Runtime DLLs placed at top level appear to be copies of some of the DLLs under runtime/bin
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62607300/why-is-java-jpackage-installing-windows-dll-files-in-two-places]
Related
How to change the MSIX installation path??
Referred this url - "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/desktop/desktop-to-uwp-behind-the-scenes"
Always installer package is created in default location "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps"
Need to set the installer location to different location.
The installation path of an MSIX package cannot be changed. All the files you have included in your package are installed inside an app-specific folder under "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps<your app>\".
This is a design decision from Microsoft. Only for MSI/EXE installers you can change the install path.
If you want to add files in other folders too, you need to copy them the first time your application is launched. For that, you have multiple options. You can write your own code inside your application to copy the files in other folders or you can use tools like Advanced Installer to do it for you.
To understand more about MSIX and how files outside of the installation path can be managed I recommend this article/presentation I wrote last month.
I've created ASP.NET MVC project in MonoDevelop on Ubuntu.
Using Nuget, I added LibGit2Sharp package, but it doesn't have libgit2 library compiled for linux environment.
Then I downloaded libgit2 sources and compiled them.
Now I have libgit2-06d772d.so, but when I put it into the bin folder of my asp.net mvc project, I get System.DllNotFoundException git2-06d772d
NOTE
When I create Console project and put libgit2-06d772d.so into the bin folder of this project, application works fine.
Shared objects are not loaded when they are next to a particular file, but when their directory is in the library load path. The operating system sets a few paths that are valid for all programs, but if you have your library elsewhere, you need to specify the directory yourself.
Exporting LD_LIBRARY_PATH with the dir of the library will let the library loader know what other paths you expect to load a library from. E.g. if you built libgit2 with the libgit2sharp script you might run
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/libgit2sharp/libgit2/build
in the console to let the OS know that any program you start from that shell where to find libgit2.
It's common for mono-based apps to provide a script for the user to run which sets up the environment before calling mono to start the actual .exe with the program.
The app I work on needs to use the wpftoolkit.extended.dll (i.e. no source, no msi/installer, we've only got the dll). So far we've placed the dll in a c:\libs folder on both the dev's laptop and the teambuild server and it built ok on both; now for deploying we want to add it to an installer (.vdproj) and we think we'll need it in tfs's repository somewhere. However, when tested the app now only builds on the dev's laptop and not on the teambuild server (looks like a relative path thing).
So... rather than fixing the actual problem, I'm wondering what's the best/cleanest/commonlyAccepted way to do this? where should I keep the dll in the repository and where should I place the dll on the host we're deploying to?
You should use folder structure on the source control like the following
/Main Contains the .sln file
/Source
/MyApp1 Contains MyApp1.sln file
/Source Contain folder for all
/ClassLibrary1 Contains ClassLibrary1.csproj
/MyApp1Web Contains Default.aspx
/Build Contains build output (binaries)
/Docs Contains product docs etc
/Tests
**/3rdpartyDlls** Contains all vesions of third-party dlls
For more information about the source control folders and best practices, it's recommended to read the book patterns & practices Team Development with TFS Guide (Final Release)
I have a machine which doesn't give me local admin rights. Is it still possible to run erlang on it, as I cannot run a windows .exe installer to install erlang?
You can copy erl.exe (plus the runtime system and all the libraries you need) from another installation and run it without the need to install. As long as you are allowed to execute files it should be okay.
Forgive me for not being as smart as Zubair,
but I would like to know exactly how to do this.
I do not have admin privilege, cannot run installers, and cannot copy files to C:\WINDOWS.
In particular, I cannot write to C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS or C:\WINDOWS\system32.
How do I get a list of exactly what libraries are required by the various erlang executables ?
I have all the MS redistributable libraries and manifests,
but I don't know where to put them to make it work.
The redistributable library structure has directories such as
Microsoft.VC90.ATL, Microsoft.VC90.CRT, etc. Each directory contains relevant dlls and a manifest.
Do I copy all the contents into the ERL_HOME\bin directory or ERL_HOME\erts-x.y.z\bin or ERL_HOME\erts-x.y.z\lib ?
or leave them in some other directory and put those entries in the PATH ?
or do I need to build the paths implied by the manifests (i.e. where they would be copied into the WinSxS cache) using hashes and version numbers in the paths, then put those entries in the PATH ?
I have an erlang application I have been writing which uses the erldis library for communicating with redis.
Being a bit of a newbie with actually deploying erlang applications to production, I wanted to know if there was anyway to 'bundle' these external libraries with the application rather than installing into my system wide /usr/lib/erlang/lib/ folder.
Currently my directory structure looks like...
\
--\conf
--\ebin
--\src
I have a basic Makefile that I stole from a friend's project, but I am unsure how to write them properly.
I suspect this answer could involve telling me how to write my Makefile properly rather than just which directory to plonk some external library code into.
You should really try to avoid project nesting whenever possible. It can lead to all sorts of problems because of how module/application version is structured within Erlang.
In my development environment, I do a few things to simplify dependancies and multiple developed projects. Specifically, I keep most of my projects sourced in a dev directory and create symlinks into an elibs dir that is set in the ERL_LIBS environmental variables.
~/dev/ngerakines-etap
~/dev/jacobvorreuter-log_roller
~/dev/elib/etap -> ~/dev/ngerakines-etap
~/dev/elib/log_roller -> ~/dev/jacobvorreuter-log_roller
For projects that are deployed, I've either had package-rpm or package-apt make targets that create individual packages per project. Applications get boot scripts and init.d scripts for easy start/stop controls but libraries and dependancy projects just get listed as package dependencies.
I use mochiweb-inspired style. To see example of this get your copy of mochiweb:
svn checkout http://mochiweb.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ mochiweb
and use
path/to/mochiweb/scripts/new_mochiweb.erl new_project_name
to create sample project of the structure (feel free to delete everything inside src afterwards and use it for your project).
It looks like this:
/
/ebin/
/deps/
/src/
/include/
/support/
/support/include.mk
Makefile
start.sh
ebin contains *.beam files
src contains ***.erl files and local *.hrl files
include contains global *.hrl files
deps contains symlinks to root directories of dependencies
Makefile and include.mk takes care of including appropriate paths when project is built.
start.sh takes care of including appropriate paths when project is run.
So using symlinks in deps directory you are able to fine tune the versions of libraries you use for every project. It is advised to use relative paths, so afterwards it is enough to rsync this structure to the production server and run it.
On more global scale I use the following structure:
~/code/erlang/libs/*/
~/code/category/project/*/
~/code/category/project/*/deps/*/
Where every symlink in deps points to the library in ~/code/erlang/libs/ or to another project in the same category.
The simplest way to do this would be to just create a folder named erldir and put the beams you need into it and then in your start script just use the -pa flag to the erlang runtime to point out where it should fetch the beams.
The correct way (at least if you buy into the OTP distribution model) would be to create a release using reltool (http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/reltool.html) or systools (http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/systools.html) which includes both your application and erldis.
Add the external libraries that you need, anywhere you want them, and add them to your ERL_LIBS environment variable. Separate the paths with colon in unix or semicolon in dos.
Erlang will add the "ebin"-named subdirs to its code loading path.
Have your *.app file point out the other applications it depends on.
This is a good halfway-there approach for setting up larger applications.
Another way is put your lib path in ~/.erlang.
code:add_pathz("/Users/brucexin/sources/mochiweb/ebin").
code:add_pathz("/Users/brucexin/sources/webnesia/ebin").
code:add_pathz("./ebin").
code:add_pathz("/Users/brucexin/sources/erlang-history/ebin/2.15.2").