Packaging

Installers are built with make dist on each platform (#52); the release workflow builds them for every platform (Releasing). They land in target/release/bundle/<format>/.

Target	Builds	Runs on
make dist	Everything for the current OS	Linux, macOS, Windows
make dist-deb	.deb	Linux (Ubuntu or Debian for the right dependencies)
make dist-rpm	.rpm	Linux (Fedora for the right dependencies)
make dist-appimage	.AppImage	Linux
make dist-linux	.deb, .rpm and .AppImage in one build	Linux
make dist-macos	.dmg (scripts/bundle-macos.sh)	macOS, with brew install vips libraw libheif dylibbundler
make dist-windows	.msi and the NSIS setup .exe	Windows (make from Git Bash), after scripts/setup-windows-libvips.sh (Building and Testing)

A target run on the wrong OS stops with a message. Any Linux can produce every Linux format, but a package’s declared dependencies only match the distribution it was built on.

Format	Build on	Notes
.rpm	Fedora 44	Declares vips, LibRaw and libheif as dependencies; libwebgpu_dawn.so goes to /usr/lib/picturesque.
.deb	Ubuntu 24.04	Declares libvips42t64, libraw23t64 and libheif1 (with the pre-t64 names as alternatives).
.AppImage	Ubuntu 24.04	Self-contained: linuxdeploy copies libvips, LibRaw, Dawn and their dependencies. HEIC support depends on how the build host’s libvips reads HEIF (Fedora loads it from a separate module that is not bundled), so the deb or rpm is the better choice where available.
.dmg	macOS 15 (Apple Silicon)	Homebrew’s libvips and LibRaw are copied into the app bundle with dylibbundler. Not verified yet.
.msi, setup .exe	Windows 10 or later, 64-bit	Self-contained: the libvips, LibRaw and libheif DLLs from target/windows-runtime are installed next to the executable (src-tauri/tauri.windows.conf.json). The setup .exe installs for the current user without administrator rights; the .msi installs for all users. The WebView2 runtime, part of Windows 11 and current Windows 10, is installed if missing. The libvips build has no HEVC decoder, so HEIC photos are not decoded (AVIF is; #135).

Each package must be built on the system it targets, because the binary links the libvips and LibRaw versions of the build host.

Linux

make dist-rpm        # on Fedora
make dist-deb        # on Ubuntu
make dist-appimage

The AppImage build points LD_LIBRARY_PATH at target/release so linuxdeploy finds libwebgpu_dawn.so, and runs linuxdeploy extracted (APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1) so no FUSE is needed.

The executable finds libwebgpu_dawn.so (ONNX Runtime’s WebGPU provider) through its run path: next to itself in development builds and AppImages, in ../lib/picturesque in deb and rpm packages (src-tauri/build.rs).

Checking an installer

Verified for the rpm (Fedora 44): installing it into an empty Fedora root (dnf --installroot … install Picturesque-*.rpm) pulls in every dependency, and ldd there resolves every library, including Dawn from /usr/lib/picturesque. Installed in the devcontainer, the app starts and shows its window under Xvfb; the AppImage does too.

To start the app headless, run it on Xvfb and make sure it does not reach another display:

Xvfb :99 &
unset WAYLAND_DISPLAY
DISPLAY=:99 GDK_BACKEND=x11 picturesque-desktop

Signing

None of the installers are signed yet.

• macOS: Gatekeeper blocks unsigned apps downloaded from the internet (right-click → Open once to allow). Distribution needs an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarization; Tauri signs and notarizes when APPLE_CERTIFICATE, APPLE_SIGNING_IDENTITY, APPLE_ID, APPLE_PASSWORD and APPLE_TEAM_ID are set in the build environment.

• Windows: SmartScreen warns about unsigned installers; an Authenticode certificate (bundle.windows.certificateThumbprint) or a signing service removes the warning.

• Linux: deb and rpm packages are not signed; checksums are published with each release. A signed repository can come later.