[Mono-osx] Potential missing symlink creation issue for 2.6.4_3

[Michael Hutchinson]

On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Jacob Page <jpage at fender.com> wrote:
> We may have uncovered an issue with the installation of Mono 2.6.4_3 on OS
> X.  We recently did a public beta release, and part of our application’s
> install process is to install Mono.  However, after everything was
> installed, our application failed to launch on the users’ computers.  Our
> application launch script executes our main assembly by running
> /usr/bin/mono with the assembly as a command-line argument.  On a clean
> install of 2.6.4_3, we found that /usr/bin/mono symbolic link was no-longer
> generated.  I guess running it worked for us because something else
> established that link (MonoDevelop?  Older versions of the framework?).
>
> Is using the /usr/bin/mono link even the “right way” to launch Mono-based
> applications?  If so, I guess this is a bug report.  If not, what is the
> recommended practice?  Directly invoking
> /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Commands/mono, or is there a file type
> association for .exe files?

The symlink should work, but I'd recommend explicitly invoking
/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/bin/mono, or even
a specific version, so that you can guarantee which Mono you're
running with. We've seen problems where a user would install Mono from
Macports, which would be in the path, and would lack expected
libraries or have other problems.

You can find a more robust launch script and more explanations here:
http://mjhutchinson.com/journal/2010/01/24/creating_mac_app_bundle_for_gtk_app

-- 
Michael Hutchinson
http://mjhutchinson.com