Is it possible to create a standalone binary?

[stevepryde]

The build/bundler seems to want to build packages that need to be installed. However I would much prefer a portable app that can be packaged as a single binary and run from the directory without needing to be installed. I'm on Windows 11 FWIW but the question is really more general since it should be possible on any OS.

Is there a way to do this?

[stevepryde]

So I discovered I can just run the .exe from src-tauri/target/release and that works, at least in my case.

[FabianLars]

Keep in mind that distributing the exe directly is probably not a good idea. You would have to make sure yourself that the users have WebView2 and vcredist installed.
And obviously some stuff won't work, like the sidecar/resource feature or the updater (which will download the MSI) or iirc the notification dialogs will show a PowerShell icon instead of your app icon.

[vanowm]

Have you tried run on different PC? It doesn't work for me with the template sample. I can see for a split of a second a window and it closes. I even tried copy entire release folder to another PC, it would not work.

[FabianLars]

@vanowm Did you read my message above? Just the binary isn't enough for most users.
Like i mentioned above, on windows you need WebView2 and vcredist (both handled by the msi)
On linux you need too much stuff to list here.

Also take a look at discussion #2924

[begin-theadventure]

Hi, I'm not sure if I should open a new discussion/issue, but I would like to be able to create a standalone binary, in my case on Linux, because building AppImage and deb wouldn't make sense on the Arch User Repository/AUR or even just for oneself if they want to use just the binary.
I think it would be great to have arguments to specify what to build, something like this:
npm run tauri build -binary / -appimage / -deb

[FabianLars]

The binary will always be build as its required for the deb and appimage too, it will be in target/release/appname

[begin-theadventure]

Never mind, I found this on the AUR :)
tauri.conf.json

    "bundle": {
      "active": true,

to false

[vsTianhao]

Anyway，Making Portable programs is a very important requirement

[vildantursic]

Totally agree, I also have requirements from clients to have portable program, without installers.

[JohnScience]

I've made some progress in this direction with https://github.com/JohnScience/tauriless/.

However, I'm not quite sure how to detect presence of vcredist. Also, follow up question, where is the dependency on vcredist introduced?

Would it be possible/sensible to use +crt-static and msvc target on Windows?

[helgoboss]

Interested in this as well. I'm writing a sort of installer in Tauri. Needing an installer in order to install an installer is a bit annoying. It would be okay to target Windows 10+.

[JohnScience]

By the way, I learned that Rust itself depends on vcredist on Windows, unless +crt-static is used.

[gknapp]

I tried to run my binary on a Windows 11 machine (that ships with Webview2) and has vcredist installed, the behavior is as others describe. What else are the MSI and NSIS installers putting it in place that allow Tauri apps to run?

[FabianLars]

the behavior is as others describe.

And that is? I don't think i see what you mean in this thread.

A plain tauri app shouldn't require anything. Even vcredist is statically linked nowadays. Are you using any additional rust crates? If you start the app binary from inside a terminal, do you get any errors?

[helgoboss]

the behavior is as others describe.

And that is? I don't think i see what you mean in this thread.

A plain tauri app shouldn't require anything. Even vcredist is statically linked nowadays. Are you using any additional rust crates? If you start the app binary from inside a terminal, do you get any errors?

I can confirm this. I'm distributing a Tauri 2 app with statically linked runtime on Windows and all it requires is WebView2. Tested with a clean windows installation. Even got it to work on Windows 7 (including all updates) with nothing else than a WebView2 install (though that required building with an older Rust version and downgrading a dependency).