How do I distribute a Gtkmm application on Windows?

Question

I have written a GUI using gtkmm (the C++ language wrapper for GTK+). I have been able to find the .dlls that the .exe. file depends upon, and make a basic installer using NSIS. However, I am having trouble distributing the application to other Windows devices. As I am completely new to this, does anyone have advice as to how to properly distribute the application? All I really need to do is download it on a few other PCs. Thanks!

You need to distribute your compilers runtime libraries, and any other libraries you are using, along with your program. — Jesper Juhl, Jul 13 '20 at 17:50
You executed the installer in another machine and it works? It is the application who fails? — Manuel, Jul 13 '20 at 17:52
@Manuel If I do not include the .dlls, the application fails and says "missing ____.dll" for whatever files it cannot find. But when I include all the .dll files in the same directory as the .exe file, the application fails with a Gdk related error — Liam Ward, Jul 13 '20 at 18:20
@Manuel Thanks for your help, the Gdk error I get when all the .dll files are included in the same directory as the .exe is "terminate called after throwing an instance of Gdk::PixbufError". However, that error doesn't show up on the original machine where I developed the application, and I have checked that all of the images I load are in the same directory as the .exe. — Liam Ward, Jul 13 '20 at 18:53
@JesperJuhl Is there any way to figure out exactly which files I need to include? — Liam Ward, Jul 13 '20 at 19:36
@LiamWard The list is too long to show here but you have one [here](http://www.tarnyko.net/repo/gtk3_build_system/tutorial/gtk3_tutorial.htm) in "Bundle content files list" section. — Manuel, Jul 14 '20 at 12:27

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 13 '20 at 19:24

Try to catch the exception and look at Gdk::PixbufError::code() or Gdk::PixbufError::what() to see why it throws.

You have several codes:

  CORRUPT_IMAGE,
  INSUFFICIENT_MEMORY,
  BAD_OPTION,
  UNKNOWN_TYPE,
  UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION,
  FAILED,
  INCOMPLETE_ANIMATION

Images in the development machine are in the same directory as the build .exe?

Also, if you run the app from an icon, shortcut or similar, the current directory may not be the same as the .exe.

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 15 '23 at 16:50

That happened to me when I packaged the wrong DLL versions (I've multiple copies of GTK DLLs due to multiple apps the uses different version)

Use ldd mygtkapp.exe on msys2 console/terminal to make sure you have the correct DLL versions packaged with your app.

How do I distribute a Gtkmm application on Windows?

2 Answers2