Re: Correct way to package win32 gtk programs

[Dan McMahill <mcmahill mtl mit edu>]

Tor Lillqvist wrote:
> > I have created some gtk exe's for win32 using gtk+ and mingw.What is the correct way to package the exe with the required DLL's?
>
> That is to some degree a question of taste and personal opinion...
>
> > Should I just send out exe file with dll's from bin? Or are end users meant to install gtk and add its bin to their system path?
>
> I would say that the current best practise is to produce a single
> executable installer (either a single .exe or a single .msi) that
> installs you application and the GTK+ stack (those parts that your
> application needs) in the same, freely selectable, location. Many
> people say, and I agree, that it is futile to try to use a shared
> installation of GTK+ on Windows for applications from different 3rd
> parties.
>
> For instance, do it like this:

[excellent reply by Tor removed]


For a concrete example of what Tor is suggesting see the win32 
subdirectory in the pcb (pcb.sf.net) source
tree.  Also look at configure.ac for pcb.  It's not really polished, but
the "build_win32" script in there will build a non-cygwin version of pcb
and create a windows installer using NSIS.  The script is a wrapper
around the autoconf build system and makes several assumptions about
where some of the gtk for windows runtime stuff exists.

There is also an 'extract_gtk_win32' script in there.

The biggest difference between whats in pcb is that I didn't try to 
minimize which parts of gtk for win32 get installed.  I just stuck in 
all the dll's.

Hope this helps.

-Dan