[Mono-list] Compile Mono, C# and C++ into a single executable

[Guillaume George]

Hi,

My company is currently developping a C# framework for a C++ game engine for
mobile games, using Mono 2.10.8.
I successfully built a minimalist version of Mono on Ubuntu (without jit)
and after having isolated the used libraries I could use it on Windows
(obviously after building the mono-2.0.dll).

The project is running without any bug in full-aot on Ubuntu and aot on
Windows as it doesn't support full-aot. 

I am now trying to port it to iOS, in order to run it on iPhone.

At the moment, our application uses the following files:
- Our C# side of the framework and user code as a C# library (.exe and
.exe.so as I compiled it in full-aot)
- a lib/ directory with mscorlib.dll and .dll.so
- a C++ executable containing the game engine and using the mono lib in
order to launch the C# framework and to do callbacks from C++ to C#.

My main question is: 
As iOS is currently forbidding using dynamic libraries, is it possible to
merge C#, C++ and the Mono Runtime into *A SINGLE executable* ?
I guess compiling everything into a single executable is possible as
MonoTouch / Unity should do something similar to deploy an application for
the AppStore.

I have already seen the mkbundle tool but if my understanding is correct, it
is only used to include the Mono Runtime and mscorlib in the C# executable. 

I tried to use mkbundle, here is the command I am using:
mkbundle -o BundledLib.exe MyCSharpLib.exe --deps --static

Sources: 1 Auto-dependencies: True
   embedding: [...]/MyCSharpLibForLinux.exe
   embedding: [...]/lib/mono/4.0/mscorlib.dll
Compiling:
as -o temp.o temp.s 
cc -o BundledLib.exe -Wall `pkg-config --cflags mono-2` temp.c  `pkg-config
--libs-only-L mono-2` -Wl,-Bstatic -lmono-2.0 -Wl,-Bdynamic `pkg-config
--libs-only-l mono-2 | sed -e "s/\-lmono-2.0 //"` temp.o


Moreover, when I am using the BundledLib,an error occurs saying it requires
lib/mono/2.0/mscorlib.dll
Is mkbundle using mkbundle2 by default? If not, how could I get mkbundle2?
I also tried to use .../bin/mono-minimal/lib/mono/4.0/mkbundle.exe and I
still get the same error.


Even including lib/mono/2.0/mscorlib.dll, the C++ can't open the assembly
anymore, mono_domain_assembly_open returns 0.

I know we must contact Xamarin if we use mkbundle --static or any other way
to statically include the Mono Runtime, but getting a license because of
static linking is not an issue.
As we have our own C++ porting layer for each target platform, using an
already made solution such as MonoTouch is not possible for the time being.

Thank you very much,
Guillaume George.



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