Questions about multiple related apps on macOS

Perdrix

I create two .app folder structures from my top level CMake file right now:

add_subdirectory(DeepSkyStackerCL)
add_subdirectory(DeepSkyStacker)
add_subdirectory(DeepSkyStackerLive)

DeepSkyStackerCL is built as a loose binary file and delivered inside the DeepSkyStacker.app folder structure (in Contents/MacOS).

As things are this creates (in the appropriate output directory) both the DeepSkyStacker.app folder structure and the DeepSkyStackerLive.app folder structure.

Where DeepSkyStacker and DeepSkyStackerLive are related GUI applications.

On macOS should they be installed as two separate apps in /Applications ? If so should they just be placed in /Applications or should I place them in a sub-folder? If not what is recommended practice?
It appears that using a .dmg to distribute code is normal practice on macOS. That's fine, but what's the "right way" to bundle both apps into a single dmg if I'm using CMake to build as above ...

Thanks

SGaist

Hi,

How much are they related ? Do they call each other ?
You have examples of both way to do this: macOS comes with a subfolder Other while Xcode embeds everything and has itself an Applications sub-folder within.
Yes it is.
I don't recall one dmg for multiple apps but it does not mean that they do not exist.
As for the CMake specifics, I currently don't know. You might want to check no their forum for that use case.

Perdrix

No they do not call one another, they are related but independent.

SGaist

In that case I would likely provide each as an installable option and have the cli provided through both of them.
Of you can also create an installer that will setup all three of them independently.