AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

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Dolus
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Joined: 23 Oct 2015, 23:43

AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by Dolus »

Would it be possible to distribute an appimage for OpenMW at some point? I've used the one for Krita for a while now, and it's been very convenient to be able to just download and run the latest version of an application on an LTS based distro.

http://appimage.org/
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Ace (SWE)
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Joined: 15 Aug 2011, 14:56

Re: AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by Ace (SWE) »

For that matter, might be worth looking into doing a Flatpak and Snap as well.

Can't speak for how easy Snaps are, but did a few Flatpak builds myself and those weren't too hard.
Dolus
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Joined: 23 Oct 2015, 23:43

Re: AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by Dolus »

Ace (SWE) wrote:For that matter, might be worth looking into doing a Flatpak and Snap as well.

Can't speak for how easy Snaps are, but did a few Flatpak builds myself and those weren't too hard.
Do flatpaks still need to be installed/uninstalled via the cli?
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Ace (SWE)
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Re: AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by Ace (SWE) »

As far as I know, both GNOME and KDE have plans to do graphical Flatpak installation, it's just not really old enough to have been integrated into many places yet.
K1ll
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Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 21:54

Re: AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by K1ll »

I have working flatpack packages for openmw and openmw-cs and am currently working on making snap packages too.
Dolus wrote:Would it be possible to distribute an appimage for OpenMW at some point? I've used the one for Krita for a while now, and it's been very convenient to be able to just download and run the latest version of an application on an LTS based distro.

http://appimage.org/
Have you tried the linux tar.gz packages? They are compiled on debian wheezy so should run on anything newer than that.
I wouldn't mind creating an AppImage out of the tar.gz as well.
Dolus
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Joined: 23 Oct 2015, 23:43

Re: AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by Dolus »

Tarballs are alright, but appimages are all the more convenient, since you don't even need to extract them. If you'd make one that would be great!
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psi29a
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Re: AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by psi29a »

My main concern about appimages is security. You'll be shipping to end-users everything so you're responsible not only for your application you wish to ship but for 3rd-party libraries needed to run.

k1ll does this already with tar balls, but it is the same problem that isn't solved by appimages.

While pushing it downstream to distributions, they will handle that for you so if there is a security update in the 3rd party libraries, it is taken care of for you instead of waiting for your project to make another release with updated libraries.

Please note: I'm not implying that we don't ship appimages or tarballs, I think we should to cover as much ground as possible. However, the warning is still there. :)
Cammera
Posts: 19
Joined: 08 Oct 2017, 22:35

Re: AppImage for OpenMW on Linux?

Post by Cammera »

psi29a wrote: 25 Oct 2016, 09:23 My main concern about appimages is security. You'll be shipping to end-users everything so you're responsible not only for your application you wish to ship but for 3rd-party libraries needed to run.

k1ll does this already with tar balls, but it is the same problem that isn't solved by appimages.
Tarballs and appimages aren't diferent when it comes to shipping. You're giving someone a binary they can run with just your word behind it.
HOWEVER, the big difference is convenience. With a tarball users may need to set env variables (LD-LIBRARY=<path>) which isn't immediately obvious; If I try to just run the nighties with a double click it'll run without even producing an error message, and if I run them in a terminal I'll get one about missing libraries that may be confusing for new users, and will still be annoying to have there for people who knows what's happening.
Appimages are like tarballs, but much more practical in every way. They just run with a doubleclick and the user never has to know the details behind it, and are very easy to archive for future reference. Want to find out if a bug has been there for some time or is a recent regression? Just open up some appimage of an old version. It'll run without any issue.

So yeah. Necro'ing an old thread right now, but appimages would be a great thing to have, both for nighties and for stable versions.
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