#LunaPack

• SHA-256 checksums for every entry (verified on unpack).
• MD5 fingerprints for every entry: the files are scanned before they go into the package, the fingerprints are listed, and after unpacking every extracted file is read back and checked against the fingerprint it had. The fingerprint of the produced file is reported as well.
• gzip compression per entry, with an auto mode that only compresses when it actually helps.
• Cross-platform: runs on Windows, Linux and macOS; packages carry their install scripts with the platform they target.
• Native and Wasm: usable as a standalone binary or through moonx.

#Releases

#Usage

#Via moonx (published on Mooncakes)

moonx riantr/LunaPack/cmd/main@latest \
  --input-exe=[input-exe-path] \
  --output-exe=[output-exe-path] \
  --Files=[Pack-Folder]

The bundle is self-extracting only when it is produced by a native LunaPack binary, because the launcher stub is the binary itself. A bundle produced through moonx runs on WebAssembly and therefore carries the payload without a native launcher; use the native binary to get a self-extracting file.

myapp.exe  =  [ LunaPack launcher ]  +  [ archive: myapp.exe, res/app.cfg, ... ]

$ ./myapp.exe
LunaPack: starting D:/apps/.lunapack/9c445884d23653fb/myapp.exe

#The icon

$ lunapack --input-exe=./BRLabeler.exe --output-exe=./BRLabeler.exe --Files=./build
  md5  cb77181515d4680a960433f65ba05bef  BRLabeler.exe
  ...
scanned 392 files
bundled 392 files -> ./BRLabeler.exe (icon copied)
output md5  f5f06ca638d59a31e773c0a28358804d  BRLabeler.exe

lunapack verify  myapp.exe
lunapack info    myapp.exe
lunapack unpack  -i myapp.exe -o ./out

#As a native binary

moon build --release
# -> _build/native/release/build/cmd/main/main.exe   (every platform)

lunapack pack   -i <input_dir> -o <output.appkg> [options]
lunapack unpack -i <package>   -o <dest_dir>    [--skip-scripts]
lunapack verify <package>      [--extracted <dir>]
lunapack info   <package>

#Options

#Example

# Bundle an application and its resources into one self-extracting file.
lunapack --input-exe=./build/myapp \
         --output-exe=./dist/myapp \
         --Files=./build

# Or produce a plain archive instead.
lunapack pack -i ./myapp -o myapp.appkg \
  --name myapp --version 1.4.0 \
  --pre-install setup.sh --post-install setup.sh

lunapack verify  myapp.appkg
lunapack unpack  -i myapp.appkg -o /opt/myapp

  md5  6f5902ac237024bdd0c176cb93063dc4  a.txt
  md5  3db2050fcf84bb631dcae417d3db518c  sub/b.txt
scanned 2 files
packed 2 files -> myapp.appkg
output md5  63da650c906fe3ab1446b121a4edd4ca  myapp.appkg

unpacked 2 files -> /opt/myapp
  md5  6f5902ac237024bdd0c176cb93063dc4  a.txt
  md5  3db2050fcf84bb631dcae417d3db518c  sub/b.txt
verified 2 files, 0 mismatches

lunapack verify BRLabeler.exe --extracted .lunapack\60844df795cb7f31

verify: OK (392 files)
verify: OK (392 files in .lunapack/60844df795cb7f31)
VERIFY OK

verify: OK (392 files)
verify: md5 mismatch for appsettings.json: expected 86ff00ef... got 3ddcb685...
verify: FAILED (392 files checked)
VERIFY FAILED

lunapack ^
  --input-exe="D:/src/App/bin/Release/net10.0-windows/App.exe" ^
  --output-exe="D:/dist/App.exe" ^
  --Files="D:/src/App/bin/Release/net10.0-windows"

D://src//WorkBuddy//Moonbit//LunaPack//_build//native//release//build//cmd//main//main.exe ^
  --input-exe="D://zkhongtuo//src//MOlabeler_V2.6//bin//x64//Release//net10.0-windows10.0.22000.0//BRLabeler.exe" ^
  --output-exe="D://zkhongtuo//src//MOLabeler_V2.6//bin//BRLabeler.exe" ^
  --Files="D://zkhongtuo//src//MOlabeler_V2.6//bin//x64//Release//net10.0-windows10.0.22000.0"

#Publishing to Mooncakes

moon login                 # once
moon publish --dry-run     # validate
moon publish               # publish riantr/LunaPack
moonx riantr/LunaPack/cmd/main@latest --input-exe=... --output-exe=... --Files=...

#Install scripts

• LUNAPACK_DEST - absolute path of the destination directory
• LUNAPACK_PHASE - pre_install or post_install

#Package format

+--------------------+  offset 0
| magic "APPKGD02"   |  8 bytes
+--------------------+  offset 8
| entry payloads     |  stored back to back, raw or gzip
+--------------------+
| manifest (UTF-8    |
| JSON)              |
+--------------------+
| magic "APPKGD02"   |  8 bytes
| manifest offset    |  8 bytes, little-endian int64
| manifest length    |  8 bytes, little-endian int64
+--------------------+  end of file

{
  "format_version": 3,
  "name": "myapp",
  "version": "1.4.0",
  "os": "linux",
  "arch": "x86_64",
  "checksum_algo": "sha256",
  "compression": "auto",
  "created_at": "2026-11-04T04:10:20Z",
  "main_program": "myapp.exe",
  "pre_install": { "platform": "posix", "body": "#!/bin/sh\n..." },
  "post_install": null,
  "entries": [
    {
      "path": "res/app.cfg",
      "mode": 420,
      "size": 22500,
      "stored_size": 913,
      "codec": "gzip",
      "checksum": "0a77c24c45d0c61f906862c4706f5dd739166985e8fc5c6344dadd9220507b28",
      "md5": "1520e796ba25554696b3cef6e913cc90",
      "offset": 8
    }
  ]
}

• size is the original file size, stored_size the space it occupies in the package.
• checksum is the SHA-256 of the original content, so it validates the data the user actually gets, not the compressed form.
• md5 is the MD5 fingerprint of the same content. It is a convenience for comparing against what the platform tooling shows, not the integrity guarantee.
• mode holds UNIX permission bits (0o644 / 0o755); they are ignored on Windows.
• main_program names the entry that is the application executable.

#Testing

moon test                      # unit + integration tests
bash scripts/test_linux.sh     # end-to-end suite (Linux / WSL)

#Notes and limitations

• main must return Unit in this MoonBit version, so the process exit code is always 0. Status is reported on stdout (VERIFY OK / VERIFY FAILED / error: ...); scripts that need an exit code should grep for those markers.
• UNIX permission bits cannot be set on Windows, so they are only applied on POSIX hosts.
• The checksum is computed over the original content; verify therefore has to decompress every entry.
• The launcher stub is the LunaPack executable of the machine that built the bundle, so a bundle runs on the platform it was created on. Under moonx (Wasm) no native stub exists, so the bundle falls back to carrying the payload inside the application executable - such a bundle holds the data but does not extract itself.
• The extraction cache lives next to the bundle (.lunapack/<hash>/). When that folder cannot be written, a temporary directory is used instead.
• Copying the icon is Windows only, because an icon is a Windows resource.
• Bundling writes the archive to a temporary file next to the output, so there must be enough free disk space for it.
• The package is built on moonbitlang/core/async, which the toolchain ships as an experimental package. The MoonBit developers have confirmed that the stable releases will use it, so the package follows the toolchain rather than pinning an older release of the runtime.