Hi,
I'm using Slax, but sometimes I need Windows, so I also use (or create) portable apps .
Slax uses modules, which are simply compressed files with LZMA algorithm. The modules are used without extraction, directly reading is supported.
I don't know how to read directly but if someone interests, I guess it won't be such a hard job...
PortableApps' approach is nearly the same as Slax have. The readonly files are under App/ directory and whole changes go to Data/ directory. If someone compile ExamplePortable.exe with a capability of reading archives which are compressed with lzma algorithm; the applications would be half to one fifth of their current sizes.
For example I downloaded both Windows and Linux binaries of SDCC compiler, which are nearly same sizes about 40 MiB, but I could use it directly from its compressed form, which is about 7 MiB on Slax...
Please somebody use that technology!
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See 7-Zip Portable.
Vintage!
Most of the official portable applications here are UPX-ed, and some of them may be using LZMA compression. I know the launchers and installers do, but most of the apps themselves use NRV2E, cause there aren't quite so many compatibility problems.
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
The NSIS installers generally use LZMA. Whether the binaries included are packed is up to the distributor.
Vintage!
You mean kinda like those JAR themes in FF.
But of course there is technically no way to do that in NSIS without several hundred WinAPI calls and perhaps even some linux kernel calls.
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Hi,
First of all, I didn't mean the installers...
I mean, ExamplePortable.exe would read a compressed file without extracting it, and whole readonly data will be compressed with LZMA algorithm. So, we will have;
App.lzma Data\ Other\ ExamplePortable.exe
Only thing we should do for our existing portable applications is to compress the App\ directory with lzma by 7z, and replace the MyApplicationPortable.exe with a new one which could read lzma archives directly (without extraction).
I am not interested in what or how the installers do...
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So, to make App\ directory *really* readonly, if we have to recompile the code, we will do what we need to do. Also, I think in this scenario, NSIS wouldn't be the model but Slax (Linux) will be; because Slax is currently using this method.
most (if not all) apps here are done without recompiling.
NSIS is what we use to make the apps portable.
Oh, and if it is possible do you happen to know where the code is that Slax uses to read out of compressed files?
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