The build command

Builing redistributables with cargo nw for different operating systems requires you to perform the build on the target operating system.

To build a redistributable you can use the following command:

cargo nw build <target>

Each target, except archive is specific to the operating system cargo nw is running on. archive targets are universal and produce a .zip file usable on the target operating system.

Following targets are available:

  • all - build all targets available on the current OS
  • archive - create a .zip archive of the redistributable
  • dmg - (MacOS) - generate a MacOS DMG image
  • innosetup - (Windows) - generate an InnoSetup interactive installer
  • snap - (Linux*) - generate a Snapcraft redistributable image

*) Please note that snap is compatible only with Linux distributions that support Snapcraft.

The build command supports the following options:

  • --sdk - builds the redistributable using Node Webkit SDK runtime (overriding the setting in the manifest file).
  • --dry-run - performs integration, but does not generate a redistributable image. You can find resulting files in the target/nw/build/ folder. If needed, you can test-run the application from the build folder.
  • --channel <'stable' or 'devel'> - Linux only - builds a snap image using the specified channel (overrides the setting in the manifest file).
  • --confinement <'strict', 'classic' or 'devmode'> - Linux only - builds a snap image using the specified confinement (overrides the setting in the manifest file).
  • --arch <'x64' or 'ia32'> builds a redistributable for the specified architecture (overrides the architecture of the current platform; can be used to build an ia32 build on x64 systems)