dylibbundler

As a Mac OS X software review, it cannot be overlooked that the app bundles introduced by the system are very innovative and practical for resource and framework distribution. However, there seems to be a problem when it comes to dynamic libraries or .dylib files, as they are not so easy to bundle. Although applications created specifically for Mac OS X might not need them, ported applications from Linux or other platforms may require these libraries that only compile as .dylib files. Unfortunately, there is no default mechanism to bundle them, and the command-line utilities provided by Apple are quite tedious to use when bundling several libraries at once. This has led to every porter developing their own solution, which is usually suboptimal, portable, and hacky.

That's where dylibbundler comes in. It's a small command-line program providing a solution to bundle .dylibs as smoothly as possible. It works by automatically detecting which dynamic libraries are needed by a given program and copying them into the app bundle. In one go, it fixes both the libraries and the executable, making them ready for distribution--with a simple command on the terminal. Additionally, it works even if the program uses plug-ins with their unique dependencies.

Using dylibbundler is more efficient than issuing dozens of Apple's command lines to bundle each program. It only requires two simple steps: creating a directory named "libs" in the Contents folder of the app bundle, and fixing the executable file to locate its dependencies' new positions. So, as a software review, I would say dylibbundler is a handy tool for ported applications to Mac OS X systems.