Makeself

Create self-extracting archives with makeself

Anodizer can create self-extracting .run archives using makeself.

Classification

Packager — creates self-extracting .run archives from Linux/macOS binaries. Required: not a publisher; makeself must be on PATH.

Minimal config

makeselfs:
  - script: ./install.sh

Full config reference

makeselfs:
  - id: default                      # optional; unique identifier
    ids: []                          # optional; filter by build IDs
    filename: ""                     # optional; output filename template
    name: ""                         # optional; display name embedded in archive
    script: ./scripts/install.sh     # required; startup script path (template)
    description: ""                  # optional; LSM metadata description
    maintainer: ""                   # optional; LSM metadata maintainer
    keywords: []                     # optional; LSM metadata keywords
    homepage: ""                     # optional; LSM metadata homepage URL
    license: ""                      # optional; LSM metadata license
    compression: ""                  # optional; gzip | bzip2 | xz | lzo | compress | none
    extra_args: []                   # optional; extra makeself CLI arguments
    files: []                        # optional; additional files to include
    os: ["linux", "darwin"]          # optional; target OS filter
    arch: []                         # optional; target architecture filter
    disable: false                   # optional

Authentication

Not applicable — makeself archive creation is a local build step with no external service calls.

Common gotchas

makeself must be on PATH: the stage errors if makeself is not found.
One .run per platform: artifacts are grouped by OS + arch; each group produces one self-extracting archive. Use os and arch to restrict which targets are packaged.
Artifact ordering: the makeself stage uses a BTreeMap (sorted by platform key) internally to ensure the artifact registration order is deterministic across builds, preventing drift in dist/artifacts.json.

Republish / update behavior

Not applicable — this is a local packaging stage, not a publisher.

Makeself config fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`id`	string	`default`	Unique identifier
`ids`	list	all builds	Filter by build IDs
`filename`	string	`{project}_{version}_{os}_{arch}.run`	Output filename (template)
`name`	string	project name	Display name embedded in the archive
`script`	string	required	Startup script path (template)
`description`	string	none	LSM metadata description
`maintainer`	string	none	LSM metadata maintainer
`keywords`	list	none	LSM metadata keywords
`homepage`	string	none	LSM metadata homepage URL
`license`	string	none	LSM metadata license
`compression`	string	makeself default	Compression: `gzip`, `bzip2`, `xz`, `lzo`, `compress`, or `none`
`extra_args`	list	none	Extra `makeself` CLI arguments
`files`	list	none	Additional files to include
`os`	list	`["linux", "darwin"]`	Target OS filter
`arch`	list	all	Target architecture filter
`disable`	string/bool	none	Disable this config

File entries

Each entry in files can specify:

Field	Alias	Type	Description
`source`	`src`	string	Source file path
`destination`	`dst`	string	Destination path inside archive
`strip_parent`	—	bool	Strip parent directory from source path

Prerequisites

The makeself command must be installed and available on PATH.

Behavior

Groups binary artifacts by platform (os + arch), creating one .run per platform
Generates an embedded LSM (Linux Software Map) metadata file
The .run extension is auto-appended if not present in the output name
IDs must be unique across all makeself configs
Skippable with --skip makeself

Default filenames

The default filename is {project}_{version}_{os}_{arch}.run, e.g. myapp_1.2.3_linux_amd64.run or myapp_1.2.3_linux_armv7.run. Two amd64 builds of one target (a baseline and a -Ctarget-cpu=x86-64-v2/v3 tune) are disambiguated by the micro-architecture level:

myapp_1.2.3_linux_amd64.run      # baseline (v1 — no suffix)
myapp_1.2.3_linux_amd64v2.run    # x86-64-v2 tuned build
myapp_1.2.3_linux_amd64v3.run    # x86-64-v3 tuned build

Compression

Override the default compression method:

makeselfs:
  - script: ./install.sh
    compression: xz

Full example

makeselfs:
  - id: installer
    script: ./scripts/install.sh
    name: "My App Installer"
    description: "Self-extracting installer for My App"
    maintainer: "Alice <alice@example.com>"
    license: MIT
    homepage: "https://example.com/myapp"
    compression: xz
    os:
      - linux
    files:
      - src: config.example.yaml
        dst: config.yaml
      - src: LICENSE
    extra_args:
      - "--nox11"