Developing Packages

onelf run is a dev-loop helper: it runs an AppDir directly without packing. Iterate fast by tweaking files and re-running.

First-time setup

Scaffold a recipe:

cd myapp/
onelf init --binary /path/to/mybinary

This writes myapp/onelf.toml seeded with sensible defaults.

Then run it, bundling libs on the first pass:

onelf run --bundle

Subsequent runs just exec (libs are already bundled):

onelf run

Dev loop

# Edit recipe or source, rebuild the binary, then:
onelf run

# If you added new dependencies:
onelf run --bundle

Running without a recipe

If your AppDir has no onelf.toml but has a single binary under bin/, onelf run auto-detects it:

onelf run ./myapp

If there are multiple binaries, pass --command:

onelf run ./myapp --command bin/helper

Passing arguments

Anything after -- goes to the app:

onelf run -- --verbose --config ./dev.toml

Or for named entrypoints:

onelf run --entrypoint myapp-daemon -- --port 8080

What onelf run sets up

Same as a real packed run, minus the mount:

• ONELF_DIR, ONELF_MODE=dev, ONELF_ARGV0, etc.
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH prepended with the AppDir's lib directories
• XDG_DATA_DIRS prepended with share/
• LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH, LIBVA_DRIVERS_PATH, GBM_BACKENDS_PATH if the corresponding subdirs exist

For cross-libc packages, onelf run detects a missing PT_INTERP and invokes the bundled ld-musl or ld-linux directly, just like the packed runtime does.

Packing for distribution

Once the recipe is stable:

onelf build                  # produces myapp.onelf
onelf verify myapp.onelf     # sanity check

Clean / reset

The lib/ directory and .onelf/ metadata are managed by onelf. To start fresh, delete them:

rm -rf myapp/lib myapp/.onelf myapp/myapp.onelf
onelf build