cargo-packager

Executable packager, bundler and updater. A cli tool and library to generate installers or app bundles for your executables. It also comes with useful addons:

• an updater
• a resource resolver

Supported packages:

• macOS
  • DMG (.dmg)
  • Bundle (.app)
• Linux
  • Debian package (.deb)
  • AppImage (.AppImage)
  • Pacman (.tar.gz and PKGBUILD)
• Windows
  • NSIS (.exe)
  • MSI using WiX Toolset (.msi)

CLI

The packager is distributed on crates.io as a cargo subcommand, you can install it using cargo:

cargo install cargo-packager --locked

You then need to configure your app so the cli can recognize it. Configuration can be done in Packager.toml or packager.json in your project or modify Cargo.toml and include this snippet:

[package.metadata.packager]
before-packaging-command = "cargo build --release"

Once, you are done configuring your app, run:

cargo packager --release

Configuration

By default, the packager reads its configuration from Packager.toml or packager.json if it exists, and from package.metadata.packager table in Cargo.toml. You can also specify a custom configuration using the -c/--config cli argument.

For a full list of configuration options, see https://docs.rs/cargo-packager/latest/cargo_packager/config/struct.Config.html.

You could also use the schema file from GitHub to validate your configuration or have auto completions in your IDE.

Building your application before packaging

By default, the packager doesn't build your application, so if your app requires a compilation step, the packager has an option to specify a shell command to be executed before packaing your app, beforePackagingCommand.

Cargo profiles

By default, the packager looks for binaries built using the debug profile, if your beforePackagingCommand builds your app using cargo build --release, you will also need to run the packager in release mode cargo packager --release, otherwise, if you have a custom cargo profile, you will need to specify it using --profile cli arg cargo packager --profile custom-release-profile.

Library

This crate is also published to crates.io as a library that you can integrate into your tooling, just make sure to disable the default-feature flags.

cargo add cargo-packager --no-default-features

Feature flags

• cli: Enables the cli specifc features and dependencies. Enabled by default.
• tracing: Enables tracing crate integration.

Licenses

MIT or MIT/Apache 2.0 where applicable.