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Home » Community » Coffee corner » Portable U++ installation
Portable U++ installation [message #29730] Wed, 10 November 2010 22:52 Go to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

Hi everyone!

I am thinking about making a portable installation of U++ on usb stick. My idea is to have U++ sources + theide + MinGW, which is basically the common windows setup, which should be portable enough as it is.

Additionally, I would like to have also MSC - I've heard it is possible to just copy the right directory to make it work in wine, so I would presume it will be similar for portable version.

Furthermore, I am thinking on how to create a portable Linux version. Easiest way would be probably to copy all the dynamically linked libs on the flash drive as well, to assure compatibility on any system. I won't bother with portable gcc of course, that is available almost everywhere.

Have anyone already tried something like that already? If yes, do you have any hints? Also, if I succeed at this, do you think someone would be interested in such "portable development kit"? If yes, I would consider to make it available for download somewhere (without MSC, to avoid legal issues) and/or publish here a complete how-to.

Bet regards,
Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #29735 is a reply to message #29730] Thu, 11 November 2010 09:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
koldo is currently offline  koldo
Messages: 3354
Registered: August 2008
Senior Veteran
Hello Honza

I am interested. Some weeks ago I asked to have a full windows setup including MinGW, just to install and run (as it was before).

I do not know who maintains the windows installer, but I can do either a second full installable or use the actual packages to do either the full or the actual installable.



Best regards
Iñaki
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #29737 is a reply to message #29730] Thu, 11 November 2010 10:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
jerson is currently offline  jerson
Messages: 202
Registered: June 2010
Location: Bombay, India
Experienced Member

Well, I am interested as well. Till now, I have only worked with the MINGW build option on Win. I'd like to try my hand on Linux as well and this contribution(if you do it) will definitely help me to learn cross platform stuff.

Thanks
Jerson
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #29749 is a reply to message #29730] Sat, 13 November 2010 12:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

I've been playing with the windows install a bit, trying to figure out how theide works with relative paths. It turns out that the situation is not very good.

My first attempt was to set everything relative to the directory where theide.exe was started from. It works up to the point of compilation, where theide gets confused and places result files into wrong directories and stops seeing some packages. I didn't find out why yet, but I guess it changes the directory internally.

So my second attempt will be to create a wrapper script/batch file/app (not sure yet) that will detect what are the correct positions of files and prepares all the config files accordingly.

I'll continue reporting here as I progress...

Bye,
Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #29751 is a reply to message #29749] Sun, 14 November 2010 11:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
koldo is currently offline  koldo
Messages: 3354
Registered: August 2008
Senior Veteran
dolik.rce wrote on Sat, 13 November 2010 12:19

I've been playing with the windows install a bit, trying to figure out how theide works with relative paths. It turns out that the situation is not very good.

My first attempt was to set everything relative to the directory where theide.exe was started from. It works up to the point of compilation, where theide gets confused and places result files into wrong directories and stops seeing some packages. I didn't find out why yet, but I guess it changes the directory internally.

So my second attempt will be to create a wrapper script/batch file/app (not sure yet) that will detect what are the correct positions of files and prepares all the config files accordingly.

I'll continue reporting here as I progress...

Bye,
Honza

Hello Honza

I have done it before Smile. For Windows it is only necessary to decide how to implement it (in actual or new packages), when to run it (it seems every new announcement, not every svn google release) and who is going to do it (I have almost done it, but perhaps the package maintainer prefers to do it by him/herself).


Best regards
Iñaki
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #29768 is a reply to message #29730] Mon, 15 November 2010 18:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

Another update is here Smile I have a fully working, mingw based, portable environment that should run anywhere you take it. All the tricks are done in a tiny wrapper (about 40 lines of code). It takes care about the paths and invokes theide. I didn't put it anywhere online yet, because it is quite big (~100MB in zip), but I'll do it as soon as I get to better internet connection Wink

Now it is time to move to the next level - adding a support for Linux, to make this really portable. So far things look promising, with only one problem: The .upp directory is hardcoded in theide Sad If it should be usable, this directory has to be portable too, not in the /home. IMHO the best way is to change the sources to check for environment variable, let's say $UPP_HOME. If it exists, its content would be used instead ~/.upp. That way not only portable installs would became possible, but also multi-user setups (several users sharing same configurations). Also, this change would affect not only theide, but any U++ app, bringing more freedom for users, while keeping compatibility with current behavior.

Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #29874 is a reply to message #29730] Thu, 25 November 2010 22:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

Hi everyone,

Sorry for delay... I was hoping to post both windows and Linux versions at the same time, but unforeseen complications happened with the Linux part while testing.

So for now, here is a link to download the windows version: http://www.2shared.com/file/B0te2Kqn/upp_portable_win32.html It contains upp sources, theide, mingw, and launcher app. The launcher is necessary to prepare the configuration files and then launches theide. The sources for this app are included in the archive at the end of this post.

The Linux version is almost ready, the last problem I have is 'Illegal instruction' error I get on some systems I used for testing. I suspect that the problem is either in theide or (more probably) in the dynamic libraries which are taken from Arch Linux. When I have bit more time I will try to recompile all of this in more portable way, so that it uses only basic i386 instructions (i.e. no i686, no sse2 etc.). Hopefully that will solve the trouble.

If the directory structure used seems weird to you, it is because it is already prepared for the Linux version. I tried to keep in mind the limitations of vfat filesystem (no symlinks, no case sensitivity) which is de facto standard for usb sticks. You will probably understand when I make it work.

Best regards,
Honza
  • Attachment: launcher.zip
    (Size: 1.51KB, Downloaded 522 times)
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #30596 is a reply to message #29730] Tue, 11 January 2011 12:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

Just a quick note for anyone who would like to have a portable U++ on USB stick with MSC instead (or in addition to) MinGW.

Yesterday I tried and it is pretty simple and straightforward. I won't be uploading any package for licensing reasons (the files are redistributable, but I think that only covers distribution in the form of original installer), but I can provide detailed instructions how to do it yourself. The basic idea is to copy all the bin, include and lib directories from windows SDK and Visual Studio installations to your flash drive and then create a new build method as usually. Everything works just fine with the launcher posted in previous post. The only unpleasant fact is that the MSC takes quite a lot of space (well, it might be stripped down a bit, I didn't really resarch what is needed and what could be omitted). The complete MinGW + MSC9 + theide + configuration + launcher is almost 600MB, but given the size of todays flash drives, it is still manageable. If you are interested in the detailed numbers:
7,9M	launcher.exe
105M	MinGW32
418M	MSC9
4,0K	MyApps
4,0K	out
66M	src
19M	upp
614M	total

Anyway, the most important part for me is that I can now use U++ on any windows computer I come to, without installing anything, just "plug&code" Smile and that I have both common compilers so I can test the compiler specific problems easily.

Best regards,
Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #32865 is a reply to message #30596] Wed, 15 June 2011 17:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
harmac is currently offline  harmac
Messages: 16
Registered: January 2011
Promising Member
I have used the portable version a couple of month ago to write my first C++ program, if I remember correctly, but still didn't thank you for preparing the package. Sorry for that. So please accept my belated thanks now.

As the external link is dead and as you mentioned to create a Linux/UNIX? version as well and the current U++ release is already old some months so that a new one might appear some day, do you plan to create a new portable package for that one? I'd certainly appreciate that and I think new users especially on Windows also would. A guide to create a portable version on one's own or a word on how to update one would also be very helpful and appreciated.
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #32866 is a reply to message #32865] Wed, 15 June 2011 18:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

harmac wrote on Wed, 15 June 2011 17:36

I have used the portable version a couple of month ago to write my first C++ program, if I remember correctly, but still didn't thank you for preparing the package. Sorry for that. So please accept my belated thanks now.

As the external link is dead and as you mentioned to create a Linux/UNIX? version as well and the current U++ release is already old some months so that a new one might appear some day, do you plan to create a new portable package for that one? I'd certainly appreciate that and I think new users especially on Windows also would. A guide to create a portable version on one's own or a word on how to update one would also be very helpful and appreciated.

Thanks accepted Smile

I'll try to find some long term storage and upload the package for MinGW there. Updating is simple, you can just download fresh sources from sf.net or google code and replace those in the src directory. Also theide.exe can be simply replaced with the new version IIRC. I'll try to gather my old notes and post the complete instructions here someday.

The linux version have never been finished, due to some problems with assuring the portability Sad Maybe I'll try again in future, but it's very low priority for me right now, sorry...

Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #35117 is a reply to message #29730] Fri, 13 January 2012 23:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vand3matram is currently offline  vand3matram
Messages: 2
Registered: January 2012
Junior Member
Hi Dolik,

Is it possible to provide the portable files for download again?

Thanks in advance.

cheers,
Vande.
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #35122 is a reply to message #35117] Sat, 14 January 2012 15:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

vand3matram wrote on Fri, 13 January 2012 23:10

Hi Dolik,

Is it possible to provide the portable files for download again?

Thanks in advance.

cheers,
Vande.

Hi Vande,
Welcome to the forum Cool

I think it is possible, but unfortunately I have all the files on different computer, so it won't be until monday. I'll prepare a complete archive with current U++ sources and updated mingw and place it on sourceforge, I think there should be no technical or legal issues with that. I'll post the link here when it is ready.

Best regards,
Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #35140 is a reply to message #29730] Mon, 16 January 2012 19:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

It took a bit more trouble than I expected, but I finally managed to upgrade the bundle Smile

The package now contains:
  • U++ sources, version 4424
  • TheIDE and umk, version 4424
  • TDM-MinGW 32bit compiler, version 4.6.1

And can be downloaded from sourceforge.net:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/upp/files/upp_portable

Enjoy U++ and let me know in case something doesn't work as expected.

Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #35155 is a reply to message #29730] Tue, 17 January 2012 14:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vand3matram is currently offline  vand3matram
Messages: 2
Registered: January 2012
Junior Member
Many thanks.

cheers,
vande.
icon7.gif  Re: Portable U++ installation [message #40661 is a reply to message #29730] Wed, 28 August 2013 20:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
pacoquintana is currently offline  pacoquintana
Messages: 12
Registered: December 2011
Location: Spain
Promising Member
Hello, I am working with the latest version of upp_portable in my pendrive (4424).
What can I do to upgrade to the latest version (5485) ?
Thanks in advance.
Paco Razz


1add1f71cc45f0a88caa948bf339b589
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #40662 is a reply to message #40661] Wed, 28 August 2013 21:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dolik.rce is currently offline  dolik.rce
Messages: 1789
Registered: August 2008
Location: Czech Republic
Ultimate Contributor

pacoquintana wrote on Wed, 28 August 2013 20:15

Hello, I am working with the latest version of upp_portable in my pendrive (4424).
What can I do to upgrade to the latest version (5485) ?
Thanks in advance.
Paco Razz

Hi Paco,

You can just download the fresh U++ and swap the sources on the pendrive, and also put a newer version of theide on it, just replacing the old one. There wasn't much changes since.

I admit I don't even remember well how it worked, I haven't used it much in last year or so... If you need to upgrade the compiler as well for some newer GCC, it should be quite easy too. The only tricky part was the launcher, but there was no progress since the last version, so it should be OK to use the same old version.

Best regards,
Honza
Re: Portable U++ installation [message #40700 is a reply to message #40662] Thu, 05 September 2013 10:51 Go to previous message
pacoquintana is currently offline  pacoquintana
Messages: 12
Registered: December 2011
Location: Spain
Promising Member
Thank's Jan, it works one hundred per cent OK.
It was easy
Paco.


1add1f71cc45f0a88caa948bf339b589
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