appimagetool
appimagetool is a tool that lets you generate AppImage files. An AppImage is a self-running bundle that contains an application and everything it needs to run that cannot reasonably expected to be part of each target system.
This can include libraries that are not commonly available on target systems, resources such as translations, icons, fonts, and other auxiliary files. appimagetool makes it easy to take an AppDir (e.g., generated by linuxdeployqt) and turn it into an AppImage.
You can also embed update information so that your users can update the AppImage using binary delta updates with the AppImageUpdate tool. You can also sign the AppImage with GPG.
GitHub Download appimagetool Website
Usage
appimagetool is available as an AppImage which means "one app = one file", which you can download and run on your Linux system while you don't need a package manager and nothing gets changed in your system. Awesome!
AppImages are single-file applications that run on most Linux distributions. Download an application, make it executable, and run! No need to install. No system libraries or system preferences are altered. Most AppImages run on recent versions of Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Red Hat, Ubuntu, and other common desktop distributions.
Running appimagetool on Linux without installation
Unlike other applications, AppImages do not need to be installed before they can be used. However, they need to be marked as executable before they can be run. This is a Linux security feature.Behold! AppImages are usually not verified by others. Follow these instructions only if you trust the developer of the software. Use at your own risk!
Download the appimagetool AppImage and make it executable using your file manager or by entering the following commands in a terminal:
chmod +x ./*.AppImageThen double-click the AppImage in the file manager to open it.
Sandboxing appimagetool
If you want to restrict what appimagetool can do on your system, you can run the AppImage in a sandbox like Firejail. This is entirely optional and currently needs to be configured by the user.
Updating appimagetool
If you would like to update to a new version, simply download the new appimagetool AppImage.
The appimagetool AppImage also can be updated using AppImageUpdate. Using this tool, appimagetool can be updated by downloading only the portions of the AppImage that have actually changed since the last version.
Integrating AppImages into the system
If you would like to have the executable bit set automatically, and would like to see appimagetool and other AppImages integrated into the system (menus, icons, file type associations, etc.), then you may want to check the optional appimaged daemon.
Note for application authors
Thanks for distributing appimagetool in the AppImage format for all common Linux distributions. Great! Here are some ideas how to make it even better.
Pro Tips for further enhancing the appimagetool AppImage
Thanks for shipping AppStream metainfo inside your AppImage. Please open a pull request on https://github.com/AppImage/appimage.github.io/blob/master/data/appimagetool if you have changed it and would like to see this page updated accordingly.
If you would like to see a donation link for the application here, please include one in the AppStream data.