Distribution Overview

There are several ways to distribute Neutralinojs apps: creating portable zip files, standalone setup files, and network-based small setup files. You can select an option according to your application distribution preference.

Application build results#

The neu build command generates the following files on any supported operating system into the dist directory.

Filename	OS	CPU architecture	Type
`myapp-linux_x64`	Linux	`x86_64`	Application binary
`myapp-linux_armhf`	Linux	`armhf`	Application binary
`myapp-linux_arm64`	Linux	`arm64`	Application binary
`myapp-mac_x64`	macOS	`x86_64`	Application binary (Intel)
`myapp-mac_universal`	macOS	`x86_64` and `arm64`	Application binary
`myapp-mac_arm64`	macOS	`arm64`	Application binary (M1/M2/M3)
`myapp-win_x64`	Windows	`x86_64`	Application binary
`resources.neu`	all	`N/A`	Application resource file

Neutralinojs officially offers only pre-built x64 and armhf/arm64 Linux-only binaries. If you need binaries for other CPU architectures, consider building binaries from the source with this guide. We are trying to officially support all CPU architectures soon!

Selecting files for packaging#

The neu CLI generates application binaries for all supported platforms at once. These binaries are pre-built binaries. Therefore, please check our security policy before you continue with the distribution process.

As the first step for packaging, you can pick two files for each targeted operating system: application binary and the resource file. For example, if you need to make an application package for x64 Linux computers, pick myapp-linux_x64 and the resources.neu file. The resources.neu contains all application resources, so, double click on the binary and check whether the resource file is not corrupted.

Creating a portable application package#

The following guides are not documented yet.

Creating a portable application package for macOS#

The neu build process creates a binary file for macOS, but that file can not be executed by a double-click action on macOS as a normal application. The following steps shows how to create a simple double-clickable executable on macOS.

Open Terminal.
Navigate to the /dist/myapp directory:
Change the binary file type to .app file type:

mv <mac_binary> <mac_binary>.app

Give the app file the required execution permissions:

chmod +x <mac_binary>.app

Now you can execute the app by double-click.

Creating application installers#

The following guides are not documented yet.