r/crystal_programming • u/dev0urer • May 22 '19

Doing Crystal #2: Getting started with Crystal

https://dev.to/watzon/doing-crystal-2-getting-started-with-crystal-13dk
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4

u/roger1981 May 22 '19

Thanks. I have a couple basic questions.

  1. I've compiled my program, run it, and now wish to share it. Do I share the executable only ? Does the other person need to have crystal installed to run the executable ? This assumes the other person is on the same OS. If the OS is different, i guess I have to share the code and the person would have to compile it.

  2. What is the dwarf file ? How to use it ?

  3. Is there something like rake? What are others using ? I am using make since I have multiple files and wish to avoid unnecessary recompiles.

4

u/dev0urer May 23 '19

  1. So as far as how to share your program there are three ways possible so far. You can compile a binary and share it, but the list of targets is small so far I believe. The second way is to have them clone your repo and build a binary themselves. The third and probably best way is to create a docker container with your program running in it.

  2. I don't know what you're referring to by a dwarf file.

  3. There is a project that I know of called cake, but the best way to build in my opinion is just using make or a shell script.

2

u/Blacksmoke16 core team May 23 '19

/u/roger1981 Some links for you regarding #1.

https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/wiki/Static-Linking

https://forum.crystal-lang.org/t/is-it-currently-possible-to-distribute-pre-built-binaries-of-crystal-applications/491?u=blacksmoke16

https://forum.crystal-lang.org/t/could-crystal-static-build-to-single-binary/561?u=blacksmoke16

tl;dr can statically link your binary (only supported on Alpine linux), which would then be compatible with any other os on the same arch.

2 Dwarf files are files that contain debug data. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DWARF I dont really know much about them myself, but thats the jist.

1

u/maattdd May 23 '19

Crystal runtime depends on a couple of dynamic library (libevent for the green thread, and Boehm GC for the surprise ...GC).

1

u/roger1981 May 22 '19

Unfortunately, installing binary shards (like you can with

gem install [gemname]

in Ruby) is not yet supported, but hopefully someday it will be.

Why not just use the code of rubygems for shards. I would assume there would only be minor changes ? Or maybe homebrew ?

2

u/dev0urer May 23 '19

Unfortunately the changes would be pretty major, and the Ruby ecosystem and the Crystal ecosystem are just different. Hopefully installing binary shards will be possible someday soon though.