Packaging for Desktop
Packaging a graphical app for distribution can be complex. Graphical applications typically have icons and metadata associated with them as well as specific formats required to integrate with each environment. Windows executables need embedded icons, macOS apps are bundles and with Linux there are various metadata files that should get installed. What a hassle!
Thankfully the “fyne” app has a “package” command that can handle this automatically. Just specifying the target OS and any required metadata (such as icon) will generate the appropriate package. The icon conversion will be done automatically for .icns or .ico so just provide a .png file :). All you need is to have the application already built for the target platform…
go install fyne.io/fyne/v2/cmd/fyne@latest
fyne package -os darwin -icon myapp.png
If you’re using an older version of Go (<1.16), you should install fyne using go get
go get fyne.io/fyne/v2/cmd/fyne
fyne package -os darwin -icon myapp.png
Will create myapp.app, a complete bundle structure for distribution to macOS users. You could then build the linux and Windows versions too…
fyne package -os linux -icon myapp.png
fyne package -os windows -icon myapp.png
These commands will create:
- myapp.tar.gz that contains a folder structure starting at usr/local/ that a Linux user could expand to the root of their system.
- myapp.exe (after the second build, which is required for a windows package) will have the icon and app metadata embedded.
If you just want to install the desktop app on your computer then you can make use of the helpful install subcommand. For example to install your current application system wide you could simply execute the following:
fyne install -icon myapp.png
All of these commands also support a default icon file of Icon.png
so that you
can avoid typing the parameter for each execution. Since Fyne 2.1 there is also a
metadata file where you can set default options for your project.
Of course you can still run your applications using the standard Go tools if you prefer.