MoonDeploy for users

Introduction

MoonDeploy is a simple and open source tool, written in Go, that:

• Starts any application having an associated .moondeploy file (called app descriptor)

• Transparently and consistently organizes (by website) such applications in a centralized, per-user directory - called app gallery: by default, such directory is USER_DIRECTORY/MoonDeploy/apps

• Automatically checks for updates and installs them

• Is especially suitable for open source applications hosted on GitHub

Requirements

MoonDeploy requires a 64-bit system.

Actually, on Windows and Linux, MoonDeploy requires the GTK runtime libraries - but they are already provided by the Windows installer and are usually available on modern Linux distributions.

Installation

MoonDeploy can be easily installed:

• Windows - Download MoonDeploy-windows.exe from the download area and run it: it will install MoonDeploy for every user in the system.

• Linux - Download MoonDeploy-linux.zip from the download area, extract it and run the setup.sh script: it will install MoonDeploy for the current user

• Mac OS X - unfortunately, it is not directly supported at the moment, but MoonDeploy can be built from sources! ^__^ Just refer to the build recipe wiki page.

Installing an application

Most often, you'll use MoonDeploy by consulting a web page in the browser and downloading a .moondeploy file - it is called application descriptor: MoonDeploy can open such files and will automatically download the related applications for you.

Installation occurs when you start an application for the first time; subsequent runs will employ the available downloaded files, even if MoonDeploy will usually try to look for an updated version of the application in question.

Once an application is installed, it is stored in a dedicated area called app gallery - one for each user in the system; its default path is USER_DIRECTORY/MoonDeploy/apps.

Every application is installed, within the app gallery, in a directory depending on its website: for example, apps downloaded from GitHub will be installed under the github.com subdirectory of the app gallery.

Running an application

There are 3 ways to run an app:

• Double-click on its Desktop icon, provided you agreed to create it on first run

• Install MaanBloem, a visual, user-friendly application to easily run and manage your MoonDeploy applications. Start it (usually, via the Desktop shortcut), then select the app you wish to start and press the Run app button

• Open its app descriptor - either the one you downloaded to start the installation process or the one in the app gallery - they are equivalent, as they refer to the very same app.

  • If you installed MoonDeploy using the dedicated installers for Windows or Linux, just double-click the descriptor file

  • More generally, especially if you feel comfortable with your system shell, you could run at the command line:

    moondeploy DESCRIPTOR_FILE

    provided that MoonDeploy's directory is in your PATH.

Uninstalling an application

Again, there are 2 simple ways:

• Start MaanBloem, then select the app you wish to delete and press Uninstall

• Alternatively, just delete its directory using its favorite file manager

Logging

• Whenever an application is run, MoonDeploy stores a dedicated log within the logs directory (by default, USER_DIRECTORY/MoonDeploy/logs)

• When the logs directory has reached a threshold (30 logs), it will be automatically emptied.

Customizing MoonDeploy

MoonDeploy has a few parameters that can be changed by the user: please, consult the Settings page in the wiki.

Screenshots