appimg

Installs, updates and removes AppImages as proper desktop applications, entirely inside $HOME.

Install

Arch, from the AUR:

yay -S appimg        # builds from source
yay -S appimg-bin    # prebuilt binary

Anywhere else:

cargo install appimg

Requires Rust 1.88.

Usage

Run appimg without arguments for the TUI, or go straight to a command:

appimg install ./someapp.AppImage
appimg install https://example.com/someapp.AppImage
appimg list --json
appimg update --all --check
appimg remove someapp
appimg doctor

The entry is registered right away, though some launchers only read their application list at startup.

Updates

appimg update --all --check    check without changing anything
appimg update --all            download and replace

No extra tool is needed. An application whose update information names a zsync file, either zsync|<url> or gh-releases-zsync|..., fetches only the parts of the new version it does not already have and verifies the assembled file before installing it. Every other source downloads the whole thing. Each update says which it was and what it cost:

  reused 19054 of 46308 blocks, fetched 107.0 MB in 22 requests

Where things go

$XDG_DATA_HOME/appimages/<name>.AppImage      the binary
$XDG_DATA_HOME/applications/<name>.desktop    the launcher entry
$XDG_DATA_HOME/icons/hicolor/*/apps/          every icon size it found