Compiling to .apps in Linux?

[TheGingerbreadGenius]

I don't think the GCC compiler can do it as it seems that Linux can't run .app files, but I was wondering is there any software/ way I can compile C programmes to .apps on Linux? Or would I just have to send the source Code to the Mac user?

 

[Atheus]

what is a .app?

if you want to compile code for a mac, you must compile it for the power pc architecture.

 

[TheGingerbreadGenius]

Yeah, .app is a file type which macs can execute/ what macs compile C progs into.


So is there any way to compile it for the PPC architecture from an X86 machine?

 

[Atheus]

You need cross compilers, maybe gcc can do it with a flag (check the man page) or if not there will be development kits out there.

 

[Nothinman]

Cross compiling is a huge PITA and if your app is a GUI (or uses any odd Apple libraries) one you'll need all of the development libraries for the Apple toolkits on the x86 machine.

And AFAIK .app is just a naming convention, the files are still normal ELF binaries.

 

[Ecgtheow]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Cross compiling is a huge PITA and if your app is a GUI (or uses any odd Apple libraries) one you'll need all of the development libraries for the Apple toolkits on the x86 machine.

And AFAIK .app is just a naming convention, the files are still normal ELF binaries.

The extension .app means that the file is an application package, where the actual binary is combined with it's resources (.nibs, frameworks, etc.) and functions as one file at the Finder level. And Mac OS X uses Mach-O (and an older Carbon one I can't quite recall, CFM?) for it's binary format, not ELF.

 

[Nothinman]

The extension .app means that the file is an application package, where the actual binary is combined with it's resources (.nibs, frameworks, etc.) and functions as one file at the Finder level. And Mac OS X uses Mach-O (and an older Carbon one I can't quite recall, CFM?) for it's binary format, not ELF.

Well since Apple uses gcc themselves the executable format shouldn't be a problem, but having the right libs and packaging them as a .app would probably be extremely problematic on anything but a OS X machine.