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https://github.com/chearon/macpack

Makes a macOS binary redistributable by searching the dependency tree and copying/patching non-system libraries.
https://github.com/chearon/macpack

app binary bundle bundler dylib macos package redistributable

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Makes a macOS binary redistributable by searching the dependency tree and copying/patching non-system libraries.

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README 

        
# Overview



Bundles up all dependencies used by an executable (or library) into a single

folder, and patches all of the executables to look in that directory so you

don't have to rely on your users having certain libraries installed.



Part of my motivation in making this was to learn Python 3's

[async/await](https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio-task.html), too. The

processes that are used to patch stuff and query dependencies all run in

parallel so it should be super fast!



# Usage and requirements



You need:



* Python 3 (`brew install python3`) because it uses async/await and asyncio

* Xcode CLI tools (I think)



The easiest way to get going is by installing through pip + PyPi:



```

pip3 install macpack

macpack 

```



You can also run it out of the project directory by doing:



```

macpack/patcher.py 

```



It should print the dependency tree like this example:



```

$ macpack ~/Code/node-canvas/build/Release/canvas.node

Patching /Users/caleb/Code/node-canvas/build/Release/canvas.node

16 total non-system dependencies

1       libpixman-1.0.dylib -> 1

2       libcairo.2.dylib -> 2, 1, 16, 9, 3

3       libpng16.16.dylib -> 3

4       libpangocairo-1.0.0.dylib -> 4, 5, 2, 14, 6, 13, 7, 8, 15, 16, 9

5       libpango-1.0.0.dylib -> 5, 6, 13, 7, 8

6       libgobject-2.0.0.dylib -> 6, 7, 11, 12, 8

7       libglib-2.0.0.dylib -> 7, 11, 8

8       libintl.8.dylib -> 8

9       libfreetype.6.dylib -> 9, 3

10      libjpeg.8.dylib -> 10

11      libpcre.1.dylib -> 11

12      libffi.6.dylib -> 12

13      libgthread-2.0.0.dylib -> 13, 7, 11, 8

14      libpangoft2-1.0.0.dylib -> 14, 5, 6, 13, 7, 8, 15, 16, 9

15      libharfbuzz.0.dylib -> 15, 7, 8, 9

16      libfontconfig.1.dylib -> 16, 9



canvas.node + 16 dependencies successfully patched

```



Everything that your executable uses should then be copied into the same folder

that your binary is. When your main binary is run next, it will look in the new

location you specified (default is `binary_dir/libs/`, see `-d` below).

Those dylibs will look in the same directory for dylibs they depend on, too, even

if your main binary does not use them.



You can then distribute the whole folder as one.



# Options



## -v, --verbose



Pass `-v` to get output from `otool` if it failed to patch or more information on 

which dependencies could not be loaded.



It will also print a more easy to read dependency tree, with the full names of

dependenies under each one



## -d, --destination



This is the destination folder **relative to the binary's containing folder** to

copy library dependencies to. For example, if you binary is `/a/b/program`,

and you pass `-d ../libraries`, they will copy to and load from

`/a/libraries/`. The default value is `../libs`.



If you want the executable and libraries to have absolute paths instead of loading

relative to the binary, you just need to specify an absolutep path for `-d`. In

that case the `@executable_path` will not be put into the binaries at all.



## -n, --dry-run



Just prints the dependency tree and doesn't do any patching. Use `-nv` to get a

slightly more user-friendly tree printed out.



# Background

It will parse out the executable's dependencies (using `otool -L`) and their

dependencies recursively, filtering out system libraries. When the tree

is built, it will copy the libraries to your program's folder and then patch

everything that it is aware of (using `install_name_tool`). It should be able

to handle different symbolic links and all that correctly



# Credits

Inspired by [macdylibbundler](https://github.com/auriamg/macdylibbundler), it does

the same basic thing except with less options (at the moment) and it builds a full

dependency tree