This page provides some guidance for developers that are planning to distribute an Ice-based application. We can start by listing items that typically should not be included in your binary distribution:
- Slice compilers
- Slice files (unless you are using a scripting language, as discussed below)
- Executables and libraries for Ice services and tools that your application does not use
- For C++ programs on Windows:
- DLLs built in debug mode (such as
ice34d.dll) - Program database (
PDB) files - Header files
- Import library (
LIB) files
- DLLs built in debug mode (such as
Each of the language mappings is discussed in its own subsection below. In the following discussion, we use the term library to refer to a shared library or DLL as appropriate for the platform.
On this page:
C++ Distribution
The Ice library contains the implementation of the core Ice run time. Supplemental libraries provide the stubs and skeletons for the Ice services, as well as utility functions used by Ice, its services, and Ice applications:
Glacier2IceBoxIceGridIcePatch2IceSSLIceStorm
The IceUtil library is a dependency of the Ice library and therefore must be distributed with any Ice application. The IceXML library is required by certain Ice services.
Your distribution needs to include only those libraries that your application uses. If your application implements an IceBox service, you must also distribute the IceBox server executable (icebox).
Discovering Dependencies
On Windows, you can use the dumpbin utility in a command window to display the dependencies of a DLL or executable. For example, here is the output for the glacier2router executable:
> dumpbin /dependents glacier2router.exe ice34.dll iceutil34.dll LIBEAY32.dll glacier234.dll icessl34.dll MSVCP90.dll MSVCR90.dll KERNEL32.dll
We can deduce from the names of the Microsoft Visual C++ run time DLLs that this Ice installation was compiled with Visual Studio 2008. Note that each of these DLLs has its own dependencies, which can be inspected using additional dumpbin commands. However, tracking down the dependencies recursively through each DLL can quickly become tedious, therefore you should consider using the Dependency Walker graphical utility instead.
On Unix, the ldd utility displays the dependencies of shared libraries and executables.
Qt Libraries
The IceGrid and IceStorm services use a pluggable architecture for their persistent storage needs. These services use Freeze as their default persistent store, but it is also possible to use SQL databases instead. To implement the SQL persistence solution, Ice uses libraries from the Qt framework. Ice has no other dependency on the Qt libraries, therefore you only need to include the Qt libraries in your own distribution if you use IceGrid or IceStorm with a SQL database. In this case, you would need to bundle the following libraries:
IceGridSqlDB(for IceGrid)IceStormSqlDB(for IceStorm)QtCoreandQtSql
.NET Distribution
The Ice assembly contains the implementation of the core Ice run time. Supplemental assemblies provide the stubs and skeletons for the Ice services:
Glacier2IceBoxIceGridIcePatch2IceSSLIceStorm
Your distribution needs to include only those assemblies that your application uses. If your application implements an IceBox service, you must also distribute the IceBox server executable (iceboxnet.exe).
On Mono, the file Ice.dll.config provides a mapping for the Bzip2 DLL. If your application does not use Ice's protocol compression feature, you do not need to distribute this file. Otherwise, you should include the file and verify that its mapping is appropriate for your target platform.
Java Distribution
The Ice for Java run time (Ice.jar) contains the following components:
- implementations of Ice, IceSSL, and the IceBox server
- stubs and skeletons for all of the Ice services
If your application uses Freeze, you must also distribute Freeze.jar along with the Berkeley DB run time libraries and JAR file.
For assistance with packaging your Java application, consider using a utility such as ProGuard.
Python and Ruby Distributions
The Ice run time for a Python or Ruby application consists of the following components:
- the library for the scripting language extension:
IcePyorIceRuby - the libraries required by the extension:
Ice,IceUtil, andSlice - the source code generated from the Slice files in the Ice distribution
In addition, your distribution should include the source code generated for your own Slice files, or the Slice files themselves if your application loads them dynamically.
PHP Distribution
The Ice run time for a PHP application consists of the following components:
- the library for the scripting language extension:
IcePHPorphp_ice - the libraries required by the extension:
Ice,IceUtil, andSlice - the source code generated from the Slice files in the Ice distribution
In addition, your distribution should include the source code generated for your own Slice files.