making-standalone-exes.txt

=head1 NAME

Making standalone .exe files for Mono or Windows from Perl 6 code using Niecza

=head1 LIMITATIONS

=over 4

=item *

You will be getting a .NET exe, not a native Win32 exe.  This
probably isn't an issue; recent versions of Windows come with .NET runtimes,
and in any case it is unavoidable.

=item *

Niecza cannot currently produce truly standalone exes; you will
have at least one dll.

=item *

It is not possible to use C<EVAL> or similar functionality with a precompiled
program.

=head1 METHOD

    $ cat > foo.pl
    say "Hello, world"
    $ mono run/Niecza.exe -c foo.pl
    $ cp obj/Run.MAIN.exe Foo.exe
    $ cp obj/Run.Kernel.dll obj/Run.CORE.dll obj/Run.MAIN.ser obj/Run.CORE.ser .
    $ mono Foo.exe
    Hello, world

The C<-c> option tells niecza to create an exe.  The produced exe depends on
runtime availability in the same directory of Kernel, all depended modules
(here just CORE), and the matching ser files for MAIN and all used modules.

=head1 BUNDLING

    $ cat > foo.pl
    say "Hello, world"
    $ make obj/Kernel.dll
    make: `obj/Kernel.dll' is up to date.
    $ NIECZA_KEEP_IL=1 mono run/Niecza.exe -C CORE
    $ NIECZA_KEEP_IL=1 mono run/Niecza.exe -c foo.pl
    $ cp obj/Kernel.dll .
    $ mono Kernel.dll -gen-app Foo obj
    $ mono Foo.exe
    Hello, world
    $ ls Foo*
    Foo.exe  Foo.ser

This method is slightly more involved, but allows shipping only three files
(including Kernel.dll) regardless of used libraries.  It is necessary to
build all used libraries with C<NIECZA_KEEP_IL=1>.

=head1 TODO

A single-file bundle mode using AssemblyResolve hooks.

Automatic bundling invoked from the compiler.