[ANN] AppBundler.jl - Bundle Your Julia GUI Application

AppBundler v0.5.0

Documentation | Examples

AppBundler now makes it straightforward to create complete Julia distributions with packages pre-compiled and ready to use. This enables several use cases:

  • Educational environments: Deploy Julia in computer labs without requiring students to wait through compilation of large packages like Makie or DifferentialEquations

  • Onboarding: Provide newcomers with a distribution that includes popular ecosystem packages, creating a smoother first-time experience

  • Air-gapped deployments: Create self-contained Julia distributions for offline or restricted network environments

Initial groundwork has been added for distributing command-line applications, with ongoing exploration of user-facing endpoint patterns. For a simple command-line application, DMG comes in at approximately 90 MB.

The next development phase will focus on integrating PackageCompiler and JuliaC to decrease application startup times and minimise installer sizes.