On Aug 8, 2011, at 5:21 AM, alaan wrote:
> is there a way to install only the runtime on a device? if the runtime is
> installed first of all, the large of the application is pleasant small.

I think I'm missing part of the question. :-)

First of all, the "separately installed runtime" is in the 
Mono.Android.DebugRuntime package, which you can find in e.g. 
/Developer/MonoAndroid/usr/lib/mandroid/Mono.Android.DebugRuntime-debug.apk on 
OSX (and some other location on Windows). You can certainly install this 
yourself by using `adb install path/to/Mono.Android.DebugRuntime-debug.apk`.

The question, though, is why install it yourself? Both MonoDevelop and Visual 
Studio will install this package when you deploy a Debug program, and once 
installed it won't be re-installed on the target device, so there shouldn't be 
any need for you to install it separately. (If MonoDevelop and/or Visual Studio 
keep reinstalling the package when it should already be present, then that's a 
package detection bug; please file a bug at bugzilla.xamarin.com, and provide 
details about the device that things are breaking on.)

Furthermore, the DebugRuntime package is only half of what a Debug app requires 
to run. The other half is the Mono.Android.Platform.apk package, specific to 
the API level that your app is targeting, e.g. if you're writing an API Level 8 
app (targeting Android 2.2), then the 
/Developer/MonoAndroid/usr/lib/mandroid/platforms/android-8/Mono.Android.Platform.apk
 package will also be installed by MonoDevelop and/or Visual Studio when you 
deploy your app. Again, you shouldn't need to worry about it.

Finally, Release apps shouldn't be using either of these packages at all, as 
Release apps bundle both the runtime and the platform with the application, 
then link all the assemblies to shrink the application package size. Our 
licensing forbids using the separate DebugRuntime in Release apps, and you 
wouldn't want to use the DebugRuntime and Platform packages either, as they're 
only signed with a debug key that's good for ~6 months (similar to how 
MonoDevelop and Visual Studio will create a "debug" signing key good for 6 
months for applications).

 - Jon

_______________________________________________
Monodroid mailing list
[email protected]

UNSUBSCRIBE INFORMATION:
http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monodroid

Reply via email to