How to distribute Chromium binary after compiling? Directory has over 39GB

Question

I want to distribute Chromium I just compiled. The problem is, just after compiling, the directory with the binary weights over 39GB! How can I filter only needed for operation files? I think it should be at most about 1GB. I am on Windows, and followed instructions from here: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/windows_build_instructions.md

The directory in question looks like this: several subdirectories, and ~1400 single files in root.

Ideally I'm looking for specific guidline, including files and folders I must keep.

Answer 1

You have to distribute mini installer only which will be in your build folder as mini_installer.exe. You can build mini installer by executing the following command:

ninja -C out\YourBuildFolder mini_installer

Basically mini installer is just a packer which packs the following files:

setup.exe
chrome.packed.7z

More information on it can be found here. So executing mini installer will extract those files and execute setup.exe, which will then install your Chromium fork. Also, for distributing your fork, you should build release versions which you can specify when you run this command:

gn args out\YourBuildFolder 

Basically it will open args.gn file located in out\YourBuildFolder and then you set:

is_debug = false

You might need those files and folders for debugging your Chromium fork as it includes the debug symbols, which are required for debugging.