Tip: Edit bashrc and run flatpaks and appimages just like they are installed

[Member PPC]

Recently a distrotube video about running universal packages, pointed me Derek Tailor’s .bashrc file, that he kindly makes available over at https://gitlab.com/dwt1/dotfiles/-/blob/master/.bashrc

Adding this lines to the bashrc file and restarting the session allow you to run Appimages or flatpaks, from the terminal, just like if they were “regular” apps, installed from a .deb package:

if [ -d "$HOME/Applications" ] ;
  then PATH="$HOME/Applications:$PATH"
fi

if [ -d "/var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/" ] ;
  then PATH="/var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/:$PATH"
fi

I recommend that this tiny change can be incorporated in antiX by default – just in case users want to try out an app available in one of those packages, they can be quickly started from the terminal.

How this works:

-For appimages: the “default” folder where you should place appimages is in your Home, inside the “Applications” folder. They do run from anywhere, but some helps apps expect them to be there. With this bashrc edit, you can simply type the name of the appimage (ex: gimp.appimage) and it starts, no need to enter the full path

– For flatpak: it’s exactly as above- you only have to enter the horrendly long name for the appimage application on the terminal (that has to include two “.”) to start it. There is no need to start it with “flatpak run [application_name]”.

Yes: I know “universal” packages take a lot of space, and they can (in appimage’s case) take a little bit longer to start on most systems (because they are uncompressed on the fly, and usually they are very large). Still, I like the idea of having the latest version of applications, without installing a bunch od dependencies. It gets even better when you can use apps that are not available in the repos.
The flatpaks are harder to use, since they seem to always think it’s a good idea to install many hundreds of mega (sometimes even over 1 gb) of “dependencies”, before allowing you to install an app that’s just a couple of mb in size… I thought one of their main selling points was precisely not having to deal with dependencies…
Every “package” has it’s pros and cons, I wont argue for (or against) any of them, but it’s always nice to cater to every user’s needs, right?

This tiny edit does make it easier to associate file types with appimages or flatpak, or use said apps in scripts. It’s basically a small help for users, nothing revolutionary, but it costs 0 system resources, right?

Now I would like to have a similar tip to make flatpaks directly available from antiX’s menu, because their .desktop files are placed on a folder that antix does not check… that would make this format usable for the “regular” user that stays away from the terminal as much as possible.

P.

• This topic was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by PPC.
• This topic was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by PPC.
• This topic was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by PPC.

[Member ModdIt]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Thanks PPC,
as usual from you, good info.

Found some useful looking code snippets in the linked bashrc from Derek taylor,
it is written for Arch or a derivative, so just copying it in to antiX then
experimenting might cause some unexpected fun.

I like to experiment and learn withourt headeache, on a non persistence live stick 🙂

[Author]

Posts