[Qt-interest] distributing a Qt app on Linux

[Boudewijn Rempt]

On Thu, 12 Mar 2009, Nathan Carter wrote:

> 
> I just finished running the fabulous macdeployqt program on my  
> application, and was pleasantly surprised to see just how easy it is  
> to prepare a fully-ready-for-distribution application.
> 
> It is harder on Windows, but I'm familiar with HMNSIS, so I'm all set  
> there, too.
> 
> Now Linux.
> 
> I realize this isn't *completely* a Qt question, but since I know that  
> you've all dealt with this issue, and since surely some Qt-related  
> issues arise (Qt libs, whether to build from source, what binaries can  
> be transported safely, etc.) I thought I'd ask.
> 
> How do you recommend distributing for Linux?  It's an OSS app, so I  
> can just refer people to my SVN repo and put a readme up there for  
> building, and a .desktop file for convenience.

We use bitrock installer together with the info from the Qt manual
about deploying on Linux. As long as we don't depend on Phonon 
(which, because of gstreamer gives crashes on all versions of Linux
but the one we built on) we have experienced a fair bit of success. For
apps that are unlikely to get into the distributions, I think that this
is the best option.

We also offer a (cpack-generator) source archive for download for 
people who want to build themselves.

Boudewijn