Table of Contents Previous Next
Logo
Binary Distributions : I.3 Guidelines
Copyright © 2003-2008 ZeroC, Inc.

I.3 Guidelines

This section provides some guidance for developers that are planning to distribute an Ice-based application. We can start by listing items that typically should not be included in your binary distribution:
• Slice compilers
• Slice files (unless you are using a scripting language, as discussed below)
• Executables and libraries for Ice services and tools that your application does not use
• For C++ programs on Windows:
DLLs built in debug mode (such as ice33d.dll)
program database (PDB) files
header files
import library (LIB) files
Each of the language mappings is discussed in its own subsection below. In the following discussion, we use the term library to refer to a shared library or DLL as appropriate for the platform.

C++

The Ice library contains the implementation of the core Ice run time. Supplemental libraries provide the stubs and skeletons for the Ice services, as well as utility functions used by Ice, its services, and Ice applications:
• Glacier2
• IceBox
• IceGrid
• IcePatch2
• IceSSL
• IceStorm
The IceUtil library is a dependency of the Ice library and therefore must be distributed with any Ice application. The IceXML library is required by certain Ice services.
Your distribution needs to include only those libraries that your application uses. If your application implements an IceBox service, you must also distribute the IceBox server executable (icebox).

Discovering Dependencies

On Windows, you can use the dumpbin utility in a command window to display the dependencies of a DLL or executable. For example, here is the output for the glacier2router executable:
> dumpbin /dependents glacier2router.exe
ice33.dll
iceutil33.dll
LIBEAY32.dll
glacier233.dll
icessl33.dll
MSVCP80.dll
MSVCR80.dll
KERNEL32.dll
We can deduce from the names of the Microsoft Visual C++ run time DLLs that this Ice installation was compiled with Visual Studio 2005. Note that each of these DLLs has its own dependencies, which can be inspected using additional dumpbin commands. However, tracking down the dependencies recursively through each DLL can quickly become tedious, therefore you should consider using the Dependency Walker1 graphical utility instead.
On Unix, the ldd utility displays the dependencies of shared libraries and executables.

.NET

The Ice assembly contains the implementation of the core Ice run time. Supplemental assemblies provide the stubs and skeletons for the Ice services:
• Glacier2
• IceBox
• IceGrid
• IcePatch2
• IceSSL
• IceStorm
Your distribution needs to include only those assemblies that your application uses. If your application implements an IceBox service, you must also distribute the IceBox server executable (iceboxnet.exe).
On Mono, the file Ice.dll.config provides a mapping for the Bzip2 DLL. If your application does not use Ice’s protocol compression feature, you do not need to distribute this file. Otherwise, you should include the file and verify that its mapping is appropriate for your target platform.

Java

The Ice for Java run time (Ice.jar) contains the following components:
• implementations of Ice, IceSSL, Freeze, and the IceBox server
• stubs and skeletons for all of the Ice services
If your application uses Freeze, you must also distribute the Berkeley DB run time libraries and JAR file.
For assistance with packaging your Java application, consider using a utility such as ProGuard.2

Python and Ruby

The Ice run time for a Python or Ruby application consists of the following components:
• the library for the scripting language extension: IcePy or IceRuby
• the libraries required by the extension: Ice, IceUtil, and Slice
• the source code generated from the Slice files in the Ice distribution
In addition, your distribution should include the source code generated for your own Slice files, or the Slice files themselves if your application loads them dynamically.

PHP

The Ice run time for a PHP application consists of the following components:
• the library for the scripting language extension: IcePHP
• the libraries required by the extension: Ice, IceUtil, and Slice
In addition, your distribution should include the Slice files required by your application.

1
See http://www.dependencywalker.com.

2
See http://proguard.sourceforge.net.

Table of Contents Previous Next
Logo