Provided by: mono-devel_6.12.0.199+dfsg-2_all 
NAME
mkbundle, mkbundle2 - Creates a bundled executable.
SYNOPSIS
mkbundle [options] assembly1 [assembly2 ...]
DESCRIPTION
mkbundle generates an executable program that will contain static copies of the assemblies
listed on the command line. By default only the assemblies specified in the command line
will be included in the bundle. To automatically include all of the dependencies
referenced, use the "--deps" command line option.
There are two modes of operation, one uses an existing Mono binary or a server-hosted list
of binaries and is enabled when you use either the --cross, --sdk or the --runtime command
line options.
An older mechanism creates a small C stub that links against the libmono library to
produce a self-contained executable and requires a C compiler. It is described in the
"OLD EMBEDDING" section below.
For example, to create a bundle for hello world, use the following command:
$ mkbundle -o hello --simple hello.exe
You can configure options to be passed to the Mono runtime directly into your executable,
for this, use the --options flag. For example, the following disables inlining, by
passing the "-O=-inline" command line option to the embedded executable:
$ mkbundle -o hello --options -O=-inline --simple hello.exe
The simple version allows for cross-compiling, this requires a Mono
runtime to be installed in the ~/.mono/targets/TARGET/mono to be
available. You can use the "--local-targets" to list all available
targets, and the "--cross" argument to specify the target, like this:
$ mkbundle --local-targets
Available targets:
default - Current System Mono
4.4.0-macosx-x86
4.4.0-debian-8-arm64
$ mkbundle --cross 4.4.0-debian-8-powerpc hello.exe -o hello-debian
The above will bundle your native library into hello-debian for a Debian 8 system running
on a PowerPC machine.
We provide pre-packages binaries for Mono for various architectures, which allow you to
cross compile, use the --list-targets to get a list of all targets supported, and use the
--fetch-target flag to retrieve a target that you do not have installed, like this:
$ mkbundle --list-targets
Cross-compilation targets available:
4.4.0-linux-libc2.13-amd64
4.4.0-linux-libc2.13-armel
4.4.0-linux-libc2.13-armhf
4.4.0-linux-libc2.13-i386
4.4.0-macos-10.7-amd64
4.4.0-macos-10.7-i386
4.4.2-linux-libc2.13-amd64
4.4.2-linux-libc2.13-armel
4.4.2-linux-libc2.13-armhf
4.4.2-linux-libc2.13-i386
4.4.2-macos-10.7-amd64
4.4.2-macos-10.7-i386
$ mkbundle --fetch-target 4.4.2-macos-10.7-i386
And then you can produce a binary that will run on 32-bit Mono on MacOS:
$ mkbundle --cross 4.4.2-macos-10.7-i386 hello.exe -o hello-macos
Downloaded targets are stored ~/.mono/targets directory.
OPTIONS
--config FILE
Specifies that a DLLMAP Mono config file must be bundled as well. In the simple
and cross compiler modes, if no config file is specified the one for the current
target is picked (either the system one in the case of the simple mode, or the one
that came from the cross compilation target for the cross compiling mode).
--config-dir DIR
When passed, DIR will be set for the MONO_CFG_DIR environment variable
--cross target
Use this to request mkbundle generate a cross-compiled binary. It Creates a bundle
for the specified target platform. The target must be a directory in
~/.mono/targets/ that contains an SDK installation as produced by the mono-package-
runtime tool. You can get a list of the precompiled versions of the runtime using
--list-targets and you can fetch a specific target using the --fetch-target command
line option.
This flag is mutually exclusive with --sdk which is used to specify an absolute
path to resolve the Mono runtime from and the --runtime option which is used to
manually construct the cross-platform package.
--deps This option will bundle all of the referenced assemblies for the assemblies listed
on the command line option. This is useful to distribute a self-contained image.
--env KEY=VALUE
Use this to hardcode an environment variable at runtime for KEY to be mapped to
VALUE. This is useful in scenarios where you want to enable certain Mono runtime
configuration options that are controlled by environment variables.
--fetch-target target
Downloads a precompiled runtime for the specified target from the Mono distribution
site.
--i18n encoding
Specified which encoding tables to ship with the executable. By default, Mono
ships the supporting I18N.dll assembly and the I18N.West.dll assembly. If your
application will use the System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding with encodings other than
the West encodings, you should specify them here.
You can use the none parameter to request that no implicit encodings should be
bundled, including the supporting I18N.dll, use this option if you have ran a
linker on your own.
You can use the all flag to bundle all available encodings.
Or you can use a comma delimited list of the workds CJK, MidWest, Other, Rare and
West to specificy which encoding assemblies to distribute.
-L path
Adds the `path' do the search list for assemblies. The rules are the same as for
the compiler -lib: or -L flags.
--library [LIB,]PATH
Embeds the dynamic library file pointed to by `PATH' and optionally give it the
name `LIB' into the bundled executable. This is used to ship native library
dependencies that are unpacked at startup and loaded from the runtime. Multiple
libraries should be specified in dependency order, where later ones on the command
line depend on earlier ones.
--lists-targets
Lists all of the available local cross compilation targets available as precompiled
binaries on the Mono distribution server.
--local-targets
Lists all of the available local cross compilation targets.
--cil-strip PATH
Provides a CIL stripper that mkbundle will use if able to. The intended use is to
help reduce file size on AOT.
--in-tree path/to/mono/source/root
Provides mkbundle with a mono source repository from which to pull the necessary
headers for compilation. This allows mkbundle to run out of the project's source
tree, useful for working with multiple runtimes and for testing without installing.
--managed-linker PATH
Provides mkbundle access to a managed linker to preprocess the assemblies.
--machine-config FILE
Uses the given FILE as the machine.config file for the generated application. The
machine config contains an XML file that is used by System.Configuration APIs to
configure the .NET stack. Typically this is $prefix/etc/mono/4.5/machine.config.
If you want to disable this automatic bundling, you can use the --no-machine-config
flag. In the simple and cross compiler modes, if no machine.config file is
specified the one for the current target is picked (either the system one in the
case of the simple mode, or the one that came from the cross compilation target for
the cross compiling mode).
--no-config
In simple or cross compiling mode, this prevents mkbundle from automatically
bundling a config file.
--nodeps
This is the default: mkbundle will only include the assemblies that were specified
on the command line to reduce the size of the resulting image created.
--no-machine-config
In simple or cross compiling mode, this prevents mkbundle from automatically
bundling a machine.config file.
-o filename
Places the output on `out'. If the flag -c is specified, this is the C host
program. If not, this contains the resulting executable.
--options OPTS
Since the resulting executable will be treated as a standalone program, you can use
this option to pass configuration options to the Mono runtime and bake those into
the resulting executable. These options are specified as OPTS.
You can use the above to configure options that you would typically pass on the
command line to Mono, before the main program is executed.
Additionally, users of your binary can still configure their own options by setting
the MONO_ENV_OPTIONS environment variable.
--sdk SDK_PATH
Use this flag to specify a path from which mkbundle will resolve the Mono SDK from.
The SDK path should be the prefix path that you used to configure a Mono
installation. And would typically contain files lik SDK_PATH/bin/mono ,
SDK_PATH/lib/mono/4.5 and so on.
When this flag is specified, mkbundle will resolve the runtime, the framework
libraries, unmanaged resources and configuration files from the files located in
this directory.
This flag is mutually exlusive with --cross
--target-server SERVER
By default the mkbundle tool will download from a Mono server the target runtimes,
you can specify a different server to provide cross-compiled runtimes.
--mono-api-struct-path FILE
FILE points to a file with the definition of the BundleMonoAPI structure which
contains the required pointers to various Mono API functions used throughout the
generated code. This mechanism is meant to be used by third parties which embed the
Mono runtime and dynamically load and initialize it as part of the application
startup, in which case the Mono APIs will not be available for the shared library
loader and the bundle will fail to work (one example of such an embedding third
party is Xamarin.Android).
After providing the definition FILE, the embedder must call the void
initialize_mono_api (const BundleMonoAPI *info) function found in the generated
code before calling void mono_mkbundle_init (). The structure passed to
initialize_mono_api doesn't need to be dynamically allocated as its contents is
copied to the local structure in the generated code and no pointer to the passed
structure is retained or used after initialize_mono_api returns.
The list of pointers is not documented here. Instead, please look at the bundle-
mono-api.inc file found in the mkbundle source directory in your Mono source tree
(mcs/tools/mkbundle) or in the Mono's GitHub repository,
https://github.com/mono/mono/blob/master/mcs/tools/mkbundle/bundle-mono-api.inc
Please note that your structure must match the one expected by your version of the
Mono runtime.
The file must also define the mkbundle_log_error function with the following
signature:
static void mkbundle_log_error (const char *format, ...) {}
The function should implement logging API specific to the embedder.
OLD EMBEDDING
The old embedding system compiles a small C stub that embeds the C code and compiles the
resulting executable using the system compiler. This requires both a working C compiler
installation and only works to bundle binaries for the current host.
The feature is still available, but we recommend the simpler, faster and more convenient
new mode.
For example, to create a bundle for hello world, use the following command:
$ mkbundle -o hello hello.exe
The above will pull hello.exe into a native program called "hello". Notice that the
produced image still contains the CIL image and no precompilation is done.
In addition, it is possible to control whether mkbundle should compile the resulting
executable or not with the -c option. This is useful if you want to link additional
libraries or control the generated output in more detail. For example, this could be used
to link some libraries statically:
$ mkbundle -c -o host.c -oo bundles.o --deps hello.exe
$ cc host.c bundles.o /usr/lib/libmono.a -lc -lrt
You may also use mkbundle to generate a bundle you can use when embedding the Mono runtime
in a native application. In that case, use both the -c and --nomain options. The
resulting host.c file will not have a main() function. Call mono_mkbundle_init() before
initializing the JIT in your code so that the bundled assemblies are available to the
embedded runtime.
OLD EMBEDDING OPTIONS
These options can only be used instead of using the --cross, --runtime or --simple
options.
-c Produce the stub file, do not compile the resulting stub.
-oo filename
Specifies the name to be used for the helper object file that contains the bundle.
--keeptemp
By default mkbundle will delete the temporary files that it uses to produce the
bundle. This option keeps the file around.
--nomain
With the -c option, generate the host stub without a main() function.
--static
By default mkbundle dynamically links to mono and glib. This option causes it to
statically link instead.
-z Compresses the assemblies before embedding. This results in smaller executable
files, but increases startup time and requires zlib to be installed on the target
system.
AOT Options
These options support an mkbundle using AOT compilation with static linking. A native
compiler toolchain is required.
--aot-runtime PATH
Provide the path to the mono runtime to use for AOTing assemblies.
--aot-dedup
(Experimental) Deduplicate AOT'ed methods based on a unique mangling of method
names.
--aot-mode MODE
MODE can be either "full" or "llvmonly" at this time. Currently, mkbundle supports
three AOT modes. The default mode (this option unset) will AOT methods but will
fall back on runtime codegen where it is much faster or offers a more full
compatibility profile. The "full" setting will generate the necessary stubs to not
require runtime code generation. The "llvmonly" setting does the same, but forces
all codegen to go through the llvm backend.
WINDOWS
If you are using the old embedding on Windows systems, it possible to use a Unix-like
toolchain like cygwin's and install gcc, gcc-mingw packages or use Visual Studio 2015/2017
VC toolchain together with Clang for Visual Studio as assembler. Clang can be installed
as an individual component, "Clang/C2", using Visual Studio installer.
Using Visual Studio toolchain, mkbundle will, by default, use latest installed Visual
Studio compiler and linker as well as Windows SDK. If executed from one of the Visual
Studio developer command prompts, mkbundle will retrieve information directly from that
build environment.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
AS Assembler command. The default is "as". For Visual Studio, default is "clang.exe".
If "clang.exe" for Visual Studio is not installed, mkbundle will fall back using
"as".
CC C compiler command. The default is "cc" for Linux, "gcc" for cygwin and "cl.exe"
for Visual Studio.
MONO_BUNDLED_OPTIONS
Options to be passed to the bundled Mono runtime, separated by spaces. See the
mono(1) manual page or run mono --help.
WINDOWS VISUAL STUDIO ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
VisualStudioVersion
Visual Studio version used in mkbundle build. Default, latest installed Visual
Studio version. Values, "14.0" for Visual Studio 2015 or "15.0" for Visual Studio
2017.
WindowsSdkVersion
Windows SDK version used in mkbundle build. Default/unknown, latest installed
Windows SDK. Values, "8.1", "10.0.10240.0", "10.0.15063.0" etc.
VSCMD_ARG_TGT_ARCH
Output target architecture used in mkbundle build. Default/unknown, use
architecture of .NET runtime executing mkbundle. Values, "x86" or "x64". NOTE,
when running from a Visual Studio command prompt, this variable should already be
set by the command prompt and match the rest of that build environment.
INCLUDE
Override all custom include paths passed to "cl.exe". Predefined by Visual Studio
developer command prompt or auto detected by mkbundle when undefined.
LIB Override all custom library paths passed to "link.exe". Predefined by Visual
Studio developer command prompt or auto detected by mkbundle when undefined.
MONOPREFIX
Use a custom Mono SDK install root matching the output target architecture
(x86/x64). Default, mkbundle will look for installed Mono SDK’s matching targeted
architecture.
MONOLIB
Use a different mono library name or an absolute path to the mono library passed to
linker. Default, mkbundle will use default mono library name depending on mkbundle
dynamic/static use case. NOTE, supplied mono library needs to match mkbundle
dynamic/static use case and target architecture.
VCCRT Override C-runtime library linker settings. Default "MD", mkbundle will use
dynamic C-runtime linking on Windows compatible with Mono SDK distribution. If a
custom built Mono runtime using static C-Runtime linkage is used, setting this
variable to "MT" will link using static C-runtime libraries.
VCSUBSYSTEM
Override Windows subsystem. Default, "windows". If console subsystem is preferred,
use "console". NOTE, if console output is expected from output target process then
set this variable to "console".
FILES
This program will load referenced assemblies from the Mono assembly cache.
Targets are loaded from ~/.mono/targets/TARGETNAME/mono
BUGS
MAILING LISTS
Visit http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-devel-list for details.
WEB SITE
Visit: http://www.mono-project.com for details
SEE ALSO
mcs(1),mono(1),mono-config(5).
Mono(mkbundle)