Auto packgaing for applications in linux

Question

It's my first time to try to get a distributed version of an application, I have a simple C application that uses GTK3 lib , when i compile this application and try to run the executable file on another Linux system that hasn't GTK lib installed of course it doesn't work !!

Is there a known and easy packaging method to get an executable file that works fine when distributed ?

Or i need to make my application installs needed libs to work and if so what is the best way to do this too ?

Note: i don't need a cross platform solution, i just want to run the application on another Linux system that hasn't GTK lib installed

Answer 1

In short: either you build in static or you do a package with the required dependencies.

The second solution is what I would recommend. You don't need to depend on the development files but only the library. Have a look to the documentation of your distribution in order to understand how to build a package.