[Mono-dev] Distributing an application with Mono

[Jonathan Pryor]

On Mon, 2006-02-13 at 14:14 +0000, Alex Chudnovsky wrote:
> Julien De Groote wrote:
> 
> >i would like to make a demo package of the software I am developing. 
> >I'd prefer for my Windows users not to do a full Mono install. 
> >
> I think Windows users would prefer to use .NET - so long as you do not 
> use any Mono specific code in your application it should run fine on 
> Windows.

I believe that he wants users to be able to run his software without
needing to install anything.  Think of a kiosk-like CD bundle: the
user/customer should just be able to insert the CD and run it, without
installing any additional software.

Mono does support this, if the history of this list is to be believed,
but I don't believe anyone has fully documented how to do this.  I
imagine that it's as "simple" as copying everything under $prefix
($prefix/bin/mono.exe, $prefix/lib/mono/gac/*, etc.), then creating
a .cmd file which uses drive-relative paths, e.g. "\bin\mono.exe
\app.exe" (if for a CD-based program), but this will grab more than your
application actually requires.

If you figure this out, you might consider documenting it so that we
have a better answer for others in the future.

 - Jon