Releasy

Releasy automates the release of Ruby applications for non-Ruby users, such as games or GUI applications. By configuring a Releasy::Project in your application's Rakefile, Releasy can generate Rake tasks for use when there is a need to build, package (archive) and/or deploy a new version of the application.

  • Author: Bil Bas (Spooner)
  • Licence: MIT
  • Github project
  • Reporting issues
  • Releasy has been tested on Ruby 1.9.3 and 1.8.7 on Windows, Lubuntu and OS X. However, since this is an early version, please ensure that you double-check any releases created by Releasy before publishing them!

Key features

  • Package up Ruby applications (Games, GUI applications, etc.) for non-ruby users.
  • Build OSX application bundle (.app) on any platform.
  • Build Windows executable (.exe) on any platform.
  • Build Windows installer on Windows only.
  • Build, package (compress) and deploy your executables for all platforms from a single rake command ('rake deploy').

Installation

gem install releasy

Example

Project's Rakefile

require 'rubygems'
require 'bundler/setup' # Releasy doesn't require that your application uses bundler, but it does make things easier.
require 'releasy'
require 'lib/my_application/version'

#<<<
Releasy::Project.new do
  name "My Application"
  version MyApplication::VERSION

  executable "bin/my_application.rbw"
  files `git ls-files`.split("\n")
  files.exclude '.gitignore'

  exposed_files ["README.html", "LICENSE.txt"]
  add_link "http://my_application.github.com", "My Application website"
  exclude_encoding

  # Create a variety of releases, for all platforms.
  add_build :osx_app do
    url "com.github.my_application"
    wrapper "wrappers/gosu-mac-wrapper-0.7.41.tar.gz" # Assuming this is where you downloaded this file.
    icon "media/icon.icns"
    add_package :tar_gz
  end

  add_build :source do
    add_package :"7z"
  end

  add_build :windows_folder do
    icon "media/icon.ico"
    add_package :exe
  end

  add_build :windows_installer do
    icon "media/icon.ico"
    start_menu_group "Spooner Games"
    readme "README.html" # User asked if they want to view readme after install.
    license "LICENSE.txt" # User asked to read this and confirm before installing.
    add_package :zip
  end

  add_build :windows_wrapped do
    wrapper "wrappers/ruby-1.9.3-p0-i386-mingw32.7z" # Assuming this is where you downloaded this file.
    exclude_tcl_tk
    add_package :zip
  end

  add_deploy :github # Upload to a github project.
end
#>>>

Tasks created

Note: The windows:folder, windows:installer and windows:standalone will be created only if running on Windows. The windows:wrapped task will not be created if running on Windows.

The output from "rake -T" on Windows would be:

rake build                                # Build My Application 1.4.0
rake build:osx                            # Build all osx
rake build:osx:app                        # Build OS X app
rake build:source                         # Build source
rake build:windows                        # Build all windows
rake build:windows:folder                 # Build windows folder
rake build:windows:installer              # Build windows installer
rake deploy                               # Deploy My Application 1.4.0
rake deploy:osx:app:tar_gz:github         # github <= osx app .tar.gz
rake deploy:source:7z:github              # github <= source .7z
rake deploy:windows:folder:exe:github     # github <= windows folder .exe
rake deploy:windows:installer:zip:github  # github <= windows installer .zip
rake generate:images                      # Generate images
rake package                              # Package My Application 1.4.0
rake package:osx:app:tar_gz               # Package osx app .tar.gz
rake package:source:7z                    # Package source .7z
rake package:windows:folder:exe           # Package windows folder .exe
rake package:windows:installer:zip        # Package windows installer .zip

A variety of unlisted tasks are also created, that allow for more control, such as deploy:github (Deploy all packages to Github only), deploy:windows:folder (deploy all windows folder packages all destinations) or package:windows (Package all windows builds).

Build types supported

The project can build one or more release folders:

  • :source
  • :osx_app
    • OS X application bundle (.app) build, requiring a pre-made Ruby OS X wrapper. Note that this only contains binary gems for Gosu, TexPlay and Chipmunk, but will work with applications using any other source gems.
    • See Releasy::Builders::OsxApp
  • :windows_folder
  • :windows_wrapped
    • A folder containing Ruby, application source files and an EXE to run them, requiring a copy of a RubyInstaller archive.
    • Available on OS X and Linux only.
    • Creates larger release than other Windows build options.
    • See Releasy::Builders::WindowsWrapped
  • :windows_installer
  • :windows_standalone
    • Standalone EXE file that self-extracts to a temporary directory, which is the default behaviour for Ocra.
    • Available on Windows only.
    • Slower startup than the other Windows build options (up to 2s slower).
    • See Releasy::Builders::WindowsStandalone

See Releasy::Project#add_build

Package types supported

Optionally, release folders can be packaged into an archive using one or more of:

See Releasy::Mixins::HasPackagers#add_package

Deploy types supported

Optionally, packaged releases can be deployed using one or more of:

See Releasy::Project#add_deploy

CLI Commands

Releasy also provides some supplementary commands:

  • releasy install-sfx [options] - Installs a copy of the Windows self-extractor in the local 7z installation, to allow use of the :exe archive format (it comes with the Windows version of 7z, so only need to use this command on OS X/Linux).

External Requirements

7-Zip (OS X/Linux only - Windows 7za executable included in Windows)

The 7z command must be installed on your system for Releasy to work:

  • Installing on OS X homebrew:

    brew install p7zip

  • Installing on Ubuntu/Debian:

    sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

  • Installing on other OS

To build :windows_installer release (Windows only)

InnoSetup is used to create an installer for the application.

To build :windows_wrapped release (OS X/Linux)

RubyInstaller 7-ZIP archives for Ruby 1.8.7, 1.9.2 or 1.9.3. Used as a wrapper for a Windows release built on non-Windows systems.

To build :osx_app application bundle release (any platform)

libgosu app wrapper. Latest version of the OS X-compatible wrapper is "gosu-mac-wrapper-0.7.41.tar.gz" which uses Ruby 1.9.2 and includes some binary gems: Gosu, Chipmunk and TexPlay.

Warning: "gosu-mac-0.7.41.tar.gz" is NOT the complete OS X app wrapper, but rather just the Gosu gem pre-compiled for OS X!

Credits

  • Thanks to jlnr for creating "RubyGosu App.app", an OS X application bundle used to wrap application code.
  • Thanks to larsh for the Ocra gem, which is used for generating Win32 executables.
  • Thanks to jlnr and shawn42 for help testing on OS X; without you I would have been screwed!
  • Thanks to shawn42 and everyone at #gosu and #rubylang for suggestions on how to improve the API.
  • Thanks to kyrylo for coming up with the name, Releasy!

Third Party Assets included

  • bin/7z.sfx - Windows 7-ZIP self-extractor module, which can be installed using releasy install-sfx [License: GNU LGPL]
  • bin/7za.exe - Windows 7-ZIP CLI executable.