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dgiagio/warp

Create self-contained single binary applications

dgiagio/warp.json
{
"createdAt": "2018-10-08T15:35:01Z",
"defaultBranch": "master",
"description": "Create self-contained single binary applications",
"fullName": "dgiagio/warp",
"homepage": "",
"language": "Rust",
"name": "warp",
"pushedAt": "2024-05-18T21:34:19Z",
"stargazersCount": 1951,
"topics": [],
"updatedAt": "2025-11-19T06:12:09Z",
"url": "https://github.com/dgiagio/warp"
}

Warp lets you create self-contained single binary applications making it simpler and more ergonomic to deliver your application to your customers. A self-contained binary is specially convenient when the technology you use, such as Node.js, .NET Core, Java and others, contain many dependencies that must be shipped alongside your application.

Warp is written in Rust and is supported on Linux, Windows and macOS.

Create the directory for the application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ mkdir myapp
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ cd myapp

Create main application - app.js

var lodash = require('lodash');
var output = lodash.without([1, 2, 3], 1);
console.log(output);

Download Node.js distribution

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v8.12.0/node-v8.12.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ xz -dc node-v8.12.0-linux-x64.tar.xz | tar xvf -

Install dependencies

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ node-v8.12.0-linux-x64/bin/npm install lodash

Remove unneeded files

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ rm -r node-v8.12.0-linux-x64/include node-v8.12.0-linux-x64/share node-v8.12.0-linux-x64/lib
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ rm node-v8.12.0-linux-x64/bin/npm node-v8.12.0-linux-x64/bin/npx

Create launcher script - launch

#!/bin/sh
NODE_DIST=node-v8.12.0-linux-x64
APP_MAIN_JS=app.js
DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" ; pwd -P)"
NODE_EXE=$DIR/$NODE_DIST/bin/node
NODE_PATH=$DIR/node_modules
APP_MAIN_JS_PATH=$DIR/$APP_MAIN_JS
exec $NODE_EXE $APP_MAIN_JS_PATH $@

Make the launcher script executable

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ chmod +x launch

Download warp-packer

If you save warp-packer in a directory in your PATH, you only need to download it once.

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ cd ..
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ curl -Lo warp-packer https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/releases/download/v0.3.0/linux-x64.warp-packer
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ chmod +x warp-packer

Create your self-contained application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ ./warp-packer --arch linux-x64 --input_dir myapp --exec launch --output myapp.bin
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ chmod +x myapp.bin

Run your self-contained application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ ./myapp.bin
[ 2, 3 ]
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$

More information about your self-contained application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ file myapp.bin
myapp.bin: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, BuildID[sha1]=aa53b01be2cde5e0b64450870b1af13b52d5cffb, with debug_info, not stripped
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ du -hs myapp.bin
17M myapp.bin

Create the directory for the application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ mkdir myapp
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ cd myapp

Create main application - app.js

var lodash = require('lodash');
var output = lodash.without([1, 2, 3], 1);
console.log(output);

Download Node.js distribution

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ curl -Lo node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64.tar.gz https://nodejs.org/dist/v8.12.0/node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64.tar.gz
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ tar xvfz node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64.tar.gz

Install dependencies

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ PATH=node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64/bin npm install lodash

Remove unneeded files

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ rm -r node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64/include node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64/share node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64/lib
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ rm node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64/bin/npm node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64/bin/npx

Create launcher script* - launch

#!/bin/sh
NODE_DIST=node-v8.12.0-darwin-x64
APP_MAIN_JS=app.js
DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" ; pwd -P)"
NODE_EXE=$DIR/$NODE_DIST/bin/node
NODE_PATH=$DIR/node_modules
APP_MAIN_JS_PATH=$DIR/$APP_MAIN_JS
exec "$NODE_EXE" "$APP_MAIN_JS_PATH" $@

Make the launcher script executable

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ chmod +x launch

Download warp-packer

If you save warp-packer in a directory in your PATH, you only need to download it once.

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ cd ..
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ curl -Lo warp-packer https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/releases/download/v0.3.0/macos-x64.warp-packer
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ chmod +x warp-packer

Create your self-contained application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ ./warp-packer --arch macos-x64 --input_dir myapp --exec launch --output myapp.bin
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ chmod +x myapp.bin

Run your self-contained application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ ./myapp.bin
[ 2, 3 ]
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$

More information about your self-contained application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ file myapp.bin
myapp.bin: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ du -hs myapp.bin
26M myapp.bin

Create the directory for the application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> mkdir myapp
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> cd myapp

Create main application - app.js

var lodash = require('lodash');
var output = lodash.without([1, 2, 3], 1);
console.log(output);

Download Node.js distribution

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> curl https://nodejs.org/dist/v8.12.0/node-v8.12.0-win-x64.zip -OutFile node-v8.12.0-win-x64.zip
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> Expand-Archive .\node-v8.12.0-win-x64.zip -DestinationPath .\

Install dependencies

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> .\node-v8.12.0-win-x64\npm install lodash

Remove unneeded files

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> rmdir -Recurse .\node-v8.12.0-win-x64\node_modules\npm

Create launcher script* - launch.cmd

Terminal window
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET "NODE_DIST=node-v8.12.0-win-x64"
SET "APP_MAIN_JS=app.js"
SET "NODE_EXE=%~dp0\%NODE_DIST%\node.exe"
SET "NODE_PATH=%~dp0\%NODE_DIST%\node_modules"
SET "APP_MAIN_JS_PATH=%~dp0\%APP_MAIN_JS%"
CALL %NODE_EXE% %APP_MAIN_JS_PATH% %*
EXIT /B %ERRORLEVEL%

Download warp-packer

If you save warp-packer in a directory in your PATH, you only need to download it once.

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> cd ..
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> [Net.ServicePointManager] !::SecurityProtocol = "tls12, tls11, tls" ; Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/releases/download/v0.3.0/windows-x64.warp-packer.exe -OutFile warp-packer.exe

Create your self-contained application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> .\warp-packer --arch windows-x64 --input_dir .\myapp\ --exec launch.cmd --output myapp.exe

Run your self-contained application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> .\myapp.exe
[ 2, 3 ]
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel>

More information about your self-contained application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> "{0:N2} MB" -f ((Get-Item myapp.exe).Length / 1MB)
9.15 MB

Create a simple console application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ mkdir myapp
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel$ cd myapp
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ dotnet new console
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ dotnet run
Hello World!
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$

Publish the application with native installer for linux-x64 runtime

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64

The application should be published to bin/Release/netcoreapp2.1/linux-x64/publish/

Download warp-packer

If you save warp-packer in a directory in your PATH, you only need to download it once.

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ curl -Lo warp-packer https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/releases/download/v0.3.0/linux-x64.warp-packer
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ chmod +x warp-packer

Create your self-contained application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ ./warp-packer --arch linux-x64 --input_dir bin/Release/netcoreapp2.1/linux-x64/publish --exec myapp --output myapp
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ chmod +x myapp

Run your self-contained application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ ./myapp
Hello World!
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$

More information about your self-contained application

Terminal window
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ file myapp
myapp: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, BuildID[sha1]=13b12e71a63ca1de8537ad7e90c83241f9f87f6c, with debug_info, not stripped
dgiagio@X1:~/Devel/myapp$ du -hs myapp
34M myapp

Create a simple console application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ mkdir myapp
Diegos-iMac:Devel dgiagio$ cd myapp
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ dotnet new console
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ dotnet run
Hello World!
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$

Publish the application with native installer for osx-x64 runtime

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ dotnet publish -c Release -r osx-x64

The application should be published to bin/Release/netcoreapp2.1/osx-x64/publish/

Download warp-packer

If you save warp-packer in a directory in your PATH, you only need to download it once.

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ curl -Lo warp-packer https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/releases/download/v0.3.0/macos-x64.warp-packer
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ chmod +x warp-packer

Create your self-contained application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ ./warp-packer --arch macos-x64 --input_dir bin/Release/netcoreapp2.1/osx-x64/publish --exec myapp --output myapp
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ chmod +x myapp

Run your self-contained application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ ./myapp
Hello World!
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$

More information about your self-contained application

Terminal window
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ file myapp
myapp: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
Diegos-iMac:myapp dgiagio$ du -hs myapp
27M myapp

Create a simple console application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> mkdir myapp
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel> cd myapp
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> dotnet new console
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> dotnet run
Hello World!
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp>

Publish the application with native installer for win10-x64 runtime

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> dotnet publish -c Release -r win10-x64

The application should be published to bin/Release/netcoreapp2.1/win10-x64/publish/

Download warp-packer

If you save warp-packer in a directory in your PATH, you only need to download it once.

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> [Net.ServicePointManager] !::SecurityProtocol = "tls12, tls11, tls" ; Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/releases/download/v0.3.0/windows-x64.warp-packer.exe -OutFile warp-packer.exe

Create your self-contained application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> .\warp-packer --arch windows-x64 --input_dir bin/Release/netcoreapp2.1/win10-x64/publish --exec myapp.exe --output myapp.exe

Run your self-contained application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> .\myapp.exe
Hello World!
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp>

More information about your self-contained application

Terminal window
PS C:\Users\Diego\Devel\myapp> "{0:N2} MB" -f ((Get-Item myapp.exe).Length / 1MB)
28.51 MB

Create a Hello World application

Create HelloWorld.java:

HelloWorld.java
public final class HelloWorld {
public static void main(final String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, world. ");
}
}

Test that it works:

Terminal window
$ javac HelloWorld.java
$ java HelloWorld
Hello, world.

We need to bundle this as a .jar:

Terminal window
$ jar cvfe app.jar HelloWorld HelloWorld.class
added manifest
adding: HelloWorld.class(in = 428) (out= 290)(deflated 32%)
$ java -jar app.jar
Hello, world.

Download a JRE

There are prebuilt JREs over on AdoptOpenJDK.

Here we use JRE 8:

wget -N https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/openjdk8-binaries/releases/download/jdk8u202-b08/OpenJDK8U-jre_x64_linux_hotspot_8u202b08.tar.gz

Unpack it:

tar -xvf OpenJDK8U-jre_x64_linux_hotspot_8u202b08.tar.gz

Create a bundle

We need to create a folder containing: our compiled code, the JRE and a launch script.

mkdir bundle
cp -r ./jdk8u202-b08-jre ./bundle/jre
cp app.jar ./bundle/app.jar
touch bundle/run.sh
chmod +x ./bundle/run.sh

Finally, we to write run.sh. This script will run our .jar using the bundled JRE.

Here are the contents of ./bundle/run.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
HERE=${BASH_SOURCE%/*}
"$HERE/jre/bin/java" -jar "$HERE/app.jar" "$@"

Test the bundle:

Terminal window
$ ./bundle/run.sh
Hello, world.

Download warp-packer

If you save warp-packer in a directory in your PATH, you only need to download it once.

Terminal window
$ wget -O warp-packer https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/releases/download/v0.3.0/linux-x64.warp-packer
$ chmod +x ./warp-packer

Create your self-contained application

Terminal window
$ ./warp-packer --arch linux-x64 --input_dir bundle --exec run.sh --output app.bin
$ chmod +x app.bin

Run your self-contained application

Terminal window
$ ./app.bin
Hello, world.

Warp is a multi-platform tool written in Rust and is comprised of two programs: warp-runner and warp-packer.

The final self-contained single binary application consists of two parts: 1) runner and 2) the compressed target application executable and dependencies.

warp-runner is a stub application that knows how to find the compressed payload within its own binary, perform extraction to a local cache and execute the target application.

The extraction process only happens the first time the application is ran, or when the self-contained application binary is updated.

warp-packer is a CLI application that’s used to create the self-contained application binary by downloading the matching warp-runner for the chosen platform, compressing the target application and its dependencies, and generating the final self-contained binary.

The performance characteristics of the generated self-contained application is roughly the same of original application, except for the first time it’s ran as the target application and its dependencies have to be decompressed to a local cache.

  • Linux: $HOME/.local/share/warp/packages
  • macOS: $HOME/Library/Application Support/warp/packges
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\warp\packages
  • Linux: $HOME/.local/share/warp/runners
  • macOS: $HOME/Library/Application Support/warp/runners
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\warp\runners
  • Diego Giagio <diego@giagio.com>

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE]!(LICENSE) file for details