On 25.8.2025 12:11, Neil C Smith wrote:
On Sun, 24 Aug 2025 at 20:14, Toni Helenius<helenius.t...@gmail.com> wrote:
We are trying to migrate from NBI to using NBPackage to distribute our Netbeans
Platform project. Our project ishttps://github.com/jMonkeyEngine/sdk/.
We are building these installers via Github actions, leveraging Ubuntu
platform. I managed to build Linux DEB and Windows Inno Setup installer with a
great effort (though not thoroughly tested yet). But I'm having much
difficulties building MacOS PKG in Ubuntu.
If solution-wise there is something, the actual implementation can be seen
here:https://github.com/jMonkeyEngine/sdk/pull/660.
Is it even possible to build these on Ubuntu?
No, it is not. NBPackage is designed to build with platform native
installer tools. You will also need Apple developer certificates and
to run the installer via Apple's notarization process if you want to
distribute it.
Unlike JPackage, there is some support for running packagers on
alternative OS. As you've found, it is possible to run InnoSetup via
Wine on Ubuntu. Although if you're using GitHub actions anyway, just
use a Windows runner with InnoSetup already installed (not the most
recent).
I did a post on the dev list a little while ago sharing the GitHub
actions workflow I'm using for a platform based IDE (PraxisLIVE).
https://lists.apache.org/thread/bhmchk2bz08kpp8dj50por7fk9g58794
The actual workflow repository is at
https://github.com/codelerity/praxislive-installers It uses a single
source Java file (simpler than scripting each OS separately) and a
properties file to configure. It downloads the application, NBPackage
and the JDK then executes the installer builds across all OS.
It is derived from the one used for the community installers for
NetBeans athttps://github.com/Friends-of-Apache-NetBeans/netbeans-installers
but using some additional features of NBPackage aimed at platform
applications.
Those workflows use secrets to hold the macOS certificates for
signing. Notarization is not done via the workflow at the moment -
this turns a 3min run to well over 30min! Windows signing is also
handled locally for now, but will be moved into those workflows in the
near future.
If you're not on the dev@ list, I'd recommend signing up / asking
questions around platform development there.
Best wishes,
Neil
Thanks, your Praxislive example looks good. I was kinda hoping to keep
everything on Ubuntu as to be able to locally test and even execute the
whole thing without any complicated setup. So we are probably going to
keep the Wine trick and rethink about our stance on MacOS. Thank you!
