Possible to create MSI installer for use in Linux

Question

I am building my Java product in Windows and generating an MSI installer for my product.

Is it possible to build an .MSI installer file for my product in Ubuntu, which would run on Windows?

Answer 1

AFAIK there are no tools to create MSI packages on Ubuntu (MS in MSI stands for "Microsoft", and MSI is pretty much limited to the Windows platform). You can package Ubuntu (and other flavours) in packages of various forms (apt, snap, tarballs, etc.) -- see http://packaging.ubuntu.com/html/packaging-new-software.html, for example. But using the same package for Windows and Linux (or other Unixen) is not really a realistic option, given the vast fundamental differences between the two OS platforms.

Answer 2

javapackager performs tasks related to packaging and signing Java and JavaFX applications. javapackager is provided by openjfx in Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04.

From the results of man javapackager.

SYNOPSIS

javapackager command [options]

       command
           The task that should be performed.

       options
           One or more options for the command separated by spaces.

COMMANDS
       You can specify one of the following commands. After the command,
       specify the options for it.

       -createbss
           Converts CSS files into binary form.

       -createjar
           Produces a JAR archive according to other parameters.

       -deploy
           Assembles the application package for redistribution. By default,
           the deploy task generates the base application package, but it can
           also generate a self-contained application package if requested.

       -makeall
           Performs compilation, createjar, and deploy steps as one call, with
           most arguments predefined, and attempts to generate all applicable
           self-contained application packages. The source files must be
           located in a folder called src, and the resulting files (JAR, JNLP,
           HTML, and self-contained application packages) are put in a folder
           called dist. This command can only be configured in a minimal way
           and is as automated as possible.

       -signjar
           Signs JAR file(s) with a provided certificate.

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In Ubuntu 18.10 and later javapackager has been removed from OpenJFX. You can replace it with msi-packager.