Create self-extractable archive installer on Linux/Unix

The solution is simple to explain: The self-extractable file are joint from an extractor shell script and an tar archive, which contains the actual contents to be extracted and installed into the system. The extractor script is a text file while the archive file is binary. They are joint together using cat to make the self-extractable archive. Thus, the self-extractable archive file should have the following parts:

• Script part: The extractor shell script, extract.sh:

  #!/bin/bash
  
  #
  # the extractor script
  # 
  
  # create a temporary directory
  TMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d InstXXXXXX)
  
  
  # extract the archive
  ARCHIVE=`awk '/^__ARCHIVE_BEGIN__/ {print NR + 1; exit 0; }' $0`
  tail -n+$ARCHIVE $0 | tar xzvf -C $TMP_DIR
  
  ## Alternatively you can use sed
  #sed -e '1,/^__ARCHIVE_BEGIN__$/d' "$0" | tar xzvf -C $TMP_DIR
  
  CUR_DIR=$(pwd)
  
  # execute install.sh
  cd $TMP_DIR; $TMP_DIR/install.sh
  
  cd $CUR_DIR
  
  rm -rf $TMP_DIR
  
  exit 0
  
  __ARCHIVE_BEGIN__
  

• Archive Part: The tar.gz archive contains the contents to install. Inside the archive, there should be an installer script, which is executed when extractor script has extracted the archive into a temporary directory. Therefore, the archive should contains below:
  • the installer script: install.sh:

    #!/bin/bash
    
    #
    # The installer script (example only, you should modify to adapt your needs.)
    # 
    
    CUR_DIR=$(pwd)
    SRC_DIR=$(cd $(dirname $0);pwd)
    DST_DIR=/usr/local/example
    
    sudo mkdir -p $DST_DIR
    cp -pr ./* $DST_DIR/
    

  • the actual content files

Also, we use a builder script: build.sh to create the self-extractable archive file.

1. To start, we need to prepare thhe directory structure like below:

   ./archive
   ./archive/bin
   ./archive/doc
   ./archive/install.sh
   ./archive/lib
   ./build.sh
   ./extract.sh
   

   The archive directory is the directory contains the install.sh and the actual content files to install. The extract.sh file is extractor script.
2. The build.sh script:

   #!/bin/bash
   
   #
   # The builder script
   #
   
   cd archive
   tar pczvf ../arc.tar.gz ./*
   cd ..
   cat extract.sh arc.tar.gz > install.bin
   rm arc.tar.gz
   chmod +x install.bin
   

3. The final self-extractable installer: install.bin

See Also

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/955460/how-do-linux-binary-installers-bin-sh-work
• Bash Self-Extracting Script