Building OSX App Bundle

Question

Hi Suppose I have have made a an osX app without using Xcode. After compiling with GCC I get an executable which is linked to several other libraries. Some of those libraries might again be dynamically linked to other non-standard system libraries

Is there any tool which exists which makes an OSX App bundle by first making the required directory structures and then recursively copying/checking/fixing links to make sure all the dynamic dependencies are also in the app bundle?

I guess I can try writing something like this but I was wondering if something like this exists already.

Answer 1

There are some open source tools to help build app bundles with dependent libraries for specific environments, for example, py2app for Python-based applications. If you don't find a more general one, perhaps you can adapt it to your needs.

Answer 2

There's really nothing magic about the bundle - just read Apple's documentation on it, and mimic it. At the base, you need an Info.plist, the Contents/MacOS/binary, and an icon.

Answer 3

The simplest solution is: create once an Xcode project without changing anything (i.e. keep the simple one-window app that Xcode creates for you), build it, and copy the bundle it created for you. Then, edit the files (notably the Info.plist) to suit your content, and put your own binary in the Contents/MacOS/ directory.