Deploy C# Windows Forms application on both Windows and Linux

Question

I know that it's possible to create MSI installers in Visual Studio using a setup project, but what would be the best way to automatically create a setup file (or packaged file of any kind) for both Windows and Linux?

I like the MSI installer on Windows so the question is rather about Linux. So is there a better solution than writing a build script that packages everything into a TAR archive which the user has to extract somewhere? For example, creating a .deb package with VS.

Answer 1

Have a look at this simple self extracting Tar archive documented here...

Hope this helps, Best regards, Tom.

Answer 2

http://www.go-mono.com/monotools/

You have to create different installers, as Windows and Linux have different installer engines (unless you use a cross platform engine bundled). Mono Tools for VS can help package applications.