On Thu, Jan 11, Carlos E. R. wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppImage
*AppImage*
AppImage (formerly known as klik and PortableLinuxApps) is a format for distributing portable software on Linux without needing superuser permissions to install the application.[1] It aims to enable application developers to deploy binary software without being restricted to specific Linux distributions, a concept often referred to as upstream packaging. In this manner, a single developed software can effortlessly run on any Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu, RHEL, or Arch.
Released first in 2004 under the name klik, it was continuously developed, then renamed in 2011 to PortableLinuxApps and later in 2013 to AppImage.
*Design*
AppImage aims to be an application deployment system for Linux with the following objectives: simplicity, binary compatibility, portability, distro agnosticism, no installation, no root permission, and keeping the underlying operating system untouched.[8]
AppImage does not install the application in the traditional Linux sense. Instead of putting the application's various files in the distribution's appropriate places in the file system, the AppImage file is a single file system image itself. When it runs, the file is mounted with FUSE.
Each file is self-contained: it includes all libraries the application depends on that are not already part of the targeted base-system. A version 1.0 AppImage is an ISO 9660 Rock Ridge file (which can be optionally zisofs compressed) containing a minimal AppDir and a tiny runtime.[9] Version 2 may use other file system image formats like SquashFS.[10][11]
AppImage files are simpler than installing an application. No extraction tools are needed, nor is it necessary to modify the operating system or user environment. Regular users on the common Linux distributions can download it, make it executable, and run it.
AppImage allows generation of embedded digital signature, which need to be verified with an external utility. The format does not offer form of self-check with package authenticity verification or runtime confinement by sandboxing.[12]
Curiously.... I guess it doesn't bundle *everything* $ file freac-1.1.7-linux-x86_64.AppImage freac-1.1.7-linux-x86_64.AppImage: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, BuildID[sha1]=9b0b692e9674b12a987463ee5486fdf2a2d3ff1b, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, stripped $ ./freac-1.1.7-linux-x86_64.AppImage /tmp/.mount_freac-YYu1Fc/freac: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_freac-YYu1Fc/libsmooth-0.9.so.0) yeah yeah, this is on 15.2 which has glibc 2.26... Gotta do the whole upgrade dance over multiple machines thing this year. Michael -- Michael Fischer michael@visv.net