Kangaroo

# How to deploy GTK based app on windows?(Updated at 08/03/2020)

# Background

Since developing SQL client tool Kangaroo, I met the major trouble is how to deploy Kangaroo app to user, then searched all of solutions from internet, finally, I found a great article GTK+3 Installation Tutorial for Windows (opens new window), it provides clear guide to deploy GTK based app, so the honor belongs to the author of article.

# Precondition

The app must be compiled and executed in environment: MSYS2 (opens new window)

# Solution

# Prepare app directory structure

To deploy GTK based app, the app must follow the directory structure like linux:

[App Home]
    ├─bin
    ├─etc
    │  └─gtk-3.0
    ├─lib
    └─share
        ├─doc
        ├─glib-2.0
        │  └─schemas
        ├─icons
        │  ├─Adwaita
        │  └─hicolor
        ├─locale
        └─themes
            ├─Default
            ├─MS-Windows
            └─Windows10
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# Copy dependent libraries of app

List of GTK dependencies GTK depends on several libraries:

  • GLib
  • cairo
  • Pango
  • ATK
  • gdk-pixbuf

To run GTK programs you will also need:

  • gettext-runtime
  • fontconfig
  • freetype
  • expat
  • libpng
  • zlib

How to get the file list and copy them to target dir?

the solution is a series of linux commands combination like this:

ldd "${SOURCEDIR}/build/src/kangaroo.exe" | grep '\/mingw64\/bin\/.*dll' -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"

Done the commands above is all right? No!!!

Some components in the GTK framework have plugins like gdk-pixbuf / libgda, so we must use the commands to copy them one by one.

ldd /mingw64/bin/libpq.dll | grep '\/mingw64\/bin\/.*dll' -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"

# Copy app resource file

  • /etc

    • /gtk-3.0/settings.ini : applications-wide settings.
    • *: miscellaneous files.

  • /lib

    • /gdk-pixbuf-2.0 : GDK-Pixbuf modules. SVG support.
    • /gtk-3.0 : GTK+-IM modules.
    • /pango : Pango modules.
    • *: import libraries, headers, pkg-config files... only needed for development.

  • /share

    • /doc : license and copyleft.
    • /gtk-3.0 : resource files for gtk3-demo program.
    • /gtk-doc : documentation in HTML format.
    • /icons : icon themes, used by gtk3-demo and gtk3-widget-factory.
    • /locale : localization files. Internationalized text support.
    • /themes : graphical themes.
    • *: miscellaneous files.

# Compare the runtime dependency view

Execute the app under user environment and the app under dev environment in full function mode, compare the runtime dependency view, check the count of dll file and dll file name. make sure they are the same.

Runtime dependency dll view tool Process Explorer (opens new window)

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# Full source code

#!/usr/bin/env sh
#
# Copyright(C) 2018-2020 taozuhong(https://github.com/taozuhong)
# Important:
#   These functions are a part of the Kangaroo tool suite;
#   copyright taozuhong. 2018-2020.  All rights reserved.
#
# Author:    taozuhong
# Created:   1.8.2019
#
SOURCEDIR="$( cd "$(dirname "$0")/../" ; pwd -P )"
TARGETDIR="${SOURCEDIR}/build/windows"
VERSION="0.7.2.$(date +%y%m%d)"
# check target directory exist and make it
echo -n "Check and make target directory......"
if [ ! -d "$TARGETDIR" ]; then
  mkdir $TARGETDIR
  mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
  mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/lib/"
  mkdir -p "${TARGETDIR}/share/glib-2.0/schemas"
  mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/share/doc"
  mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/share/themes"
  mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/etc/"
else 
  if [ ! -d "${TARGETDIR}/bin" ]; then
    mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
  fi
  if [ ! -d "${TARGETDIR}/lib" ]; then
    mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/lib/"
  fi
  if [ ! -d "${TARGETDIR}/share" ]; then
    mkdir -p "${TARGETDIR}/share/glib-2.0/schemas"
    mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/share/"
    mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/share/doc"
    mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/share/themes"
  fi
  if [ ! -d "${TARGETDIR}/etc" ]; then
    mkdir "${TARGETDIR}/etc/"
  fi
fi
echo "[done]"
# copy app dependency library to target dir
echo -n "Copy app dependency library......"
ldd "${SOURCEDIR}/build/src/kangaroo.exe" | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
ldd $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libjson-glib-1.0-0.dll | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
ldd $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libsoup-2.4-1.dll | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
ldd $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libgtksourceview-4-0.dll | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f "${SOURCEDIR}/build/src/kangaroo.exe" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f "${SOURCEDIR}/data/assets/kangaroo.ico" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/librsvg-2-2.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libgthread-2.0-0.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libcroco-0.6-3.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libtasn1-6.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libproxy-1.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libp11-kit-0.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libnettle-7.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libhogweed-5.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libgnutls-30.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libgmp-10.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
echo "[done]"
# copy GDBus/Helper and dependencies files
echo -n "Copy GDBus/Helper and dependencies......"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/gdbus.exe "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
ldd $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/gdbus.exe | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/gspawn-win64-helper.exe "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
ldd $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/gspawn-win64-helper.exe | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
echo "[done]"
# libgda providers required library(MySQL/PostgreSQL/JDBC/...)
echo -n "Copy database client library for libgda......"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libpq.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/mariadb.dll "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
ldd $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/libpq.dll | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
ldd $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/bin/mariadb.dll | grep "$MSYSTEM_PREFIX\/bin\/.*dll" -o | xargs -I{} cp -f "{}" "${TARGETDIR}/bin/"
if [ -d "${SOURCEDIR}/libs/plugin" ]; then
  cp -rf "${SOURCEDIR}/libs/plugin" "${TARGETDIR}/lib"
fi
echo "[done]"
# copy GTK runtime dependencies resource
echo -n "Copy GTK runtime resource......"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/lib/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 "${TARGETDIR}/lib/"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/lib/libgda-5.0 "${TARGETDIR}/lib/"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/lib/gio "${TARGETDIR}/lib/"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/etc/gtk-3.0 "${TARGETDIR}/etc/"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/share/icons "${TARGETDIR}/share/"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/share/locale "${TARGETDIR}/share/"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/share/gtksourceview-4 "${TARGETDIR}/share/"
glib-compile-schemas $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/share/glib-2.0/schemas
cp -f $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/share/glib-2.0/schemas/gschema* "${TARGETDIR}/share/glib-2.0/schemas"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/share/themes/Default "${TARGETDIR}/share/themes/"
cp -rf $MSYSTEM_PREFIX/share/themes/MS-Windows "${TARGETDIR}/share/themes/"
find "${TARGETDIR}/lib" -type f -path '*.dll.a' -exec rm '{}' \;
echo "[done]"
# download license file: LGPL-3.0
echo -n "Downloading the remote license file......"
if [ ! -f "${TARGETDIR}/share/doc/lgpl-3.0.txt" ]; then
  curl "https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.txt" -o "${TARGETDIR}/share/doc/lgpl-3.0.txt"
fi
if [ -f "${TARGETDIR}/share/doc/lgpl-3.0.txt" ]; then
  echo "[done]"
else
  echo "[failed]"
fi
Last Updated: 2023-10-17T03:57:42.000Z

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