appimage.github.io

This is...

• A crowd-sourced directory of available, reviewed AppImages with data that 3rd party app stores and software centers can use. Given a URL to an AppImage, it inspects the AppImage and puts it into a community-maintained catalog. The idea is that all the metadata travels inside the AppImage, so besides adding a URL to this repository no additional information is asked, since it comes with the AppImage itself.

This is NOT...

• A distribution. appimage.github.io does not distribute AppImages or provide them for download. It simply links to the respective author's download pages, from where users will be able to download AppImages. It also does not keep track of versions, only of channels such as "release", "beta", "nightly", "continuous" (as defined by the upstream application authors). We think that trying to keep track of all versions in a central repository is futile, since it does not scale.
• A guarantee of any sorts. While we check that an AppImage follows basic AppImage conventions and that it can run on the oldest still-supported LTS release of Ubuntu, this is basically all we check for right now. No explicit or implied guarantees whatsoever. Use at your own risk and only run applications from authors you trust. We do not imply that you should trust applications or their authors just because they are listed here.

User stories

• "As a user, I would like to have a central catalog of available AppImages that I can download directly from the application authors, so that I know what is available."
• "As a developer, I would like to make my application known to as many potential users as possible in order to increase my user base."
• "As an app center or app store developer, I would like to get information about the available AppImages easily, so that I can focus on building my app center or app store rather than having to crawl the Internet for AppImages myself."

How to submit AppImages to the catalog

Create a new file using

this link

and send a Pull Request.

The file should contain one line with a link to the GitHub, Codeberg or GitLab repository that hosts AppImages on its Releases page.

Alternatively, a link to the AppImage. Nothing else.

The pull request must add (or change) exactly this one file in data/ and nothing else; one application per pull request. Otherwise the test fails.

Ideally, the file in data/ contains a link to https://github.com/User/App/ (or the equivalent Codeberg or GitLab project page; not to a specific AppImage!). The test then picks the AppImage from the newest release (or, if no release has an AppImage, the newest pre-release): among its files ending in .AppImage, the one for x86_64 (other architectures such as aarch64 or i686 are left out), not a debug or nightly build, and, if the release contains AppImages of several applications, the one named like the file in data/. If it is still not clear which AppImage to test (e.g. App-qt5-x86_64.AppImage and App-qt6-x86_64.AppImage), the test fails; then put the link to the AppImage itself into the file in data/.

If a PR changes the file in data/ to a download location of a different owner (another GitHub user or organization, or another website), it gets the manual-check-needed label and a comment: please explain in the PR why the location changed, ideally with a link where the project announces it.

Name of the file in data/ (checked by the test; new files that break these rules fail with the error-filename label):

• The name of the application, as in its desktop file, e.g. data/Krita
• No blanks; use _ instead, e.g. data/Linux_Device_Manager
• No version number, architecture or .AppImage, e.g. not data/App-1.0-x86_64.AppImage
• No "AppImage" or "Linux" unless they are part of the application's name (all AppImages are for Linux)
• No file extension such as .md or .txt
• Not an existing name in different capitalization; to update an entry, change its existing file

Standard nomenclature:

• AppImage filename consists of pieces: Application name, hyphen, version, hyphen, architecture, dot, AppImage suffix
• First piece of the AppImage filename, "App" == name of the repo
• Blanks in the app name become _
• Respect uppercase. If the app is called "App", do NOT use "app"
• Example: App-1.1-x86_64.AppImage in a repo called "App"

Then send a Pull Request to this repository. GitHub Actions will instantly perform an automated review of the AppImage and post the result as a comment in your pull request: a screenshot of your application if it succeeds, or the error (with hints on how to fix it) if it fails. Please check that the screenshot shows the main window of your application.

Then the autodetection works.

Checklist for submitting your own AppImage

As a format, AppImage is designed in a way that does not impose restrictions on the person generating AppImages. Basically you are free to put inside an AppImage whatever you want. For appimage.github.io, however, additional rules apply. AppImages submitted to AppImage hub undergo automatic and possibly additional manual review.

• Must be downloadable from a URL. Our testing system fetches the AppImage using wget. Currently we cannot get AppImages from locations behind authentication and/or cookie-protected locations. For commercial applications we recommend to have a generally downloadable demo/trial version. Please contact us if you would like to add your commercial AppImage to the directory and it is not available for general download
• Must be a type 2 AppImage with a SquashFS file system. Other file systems, such as DwarFS (used, e.g., by uruntime and quick-sharun), are currently not supported: the test cannot mount such AppImages
• Must run on the oldest still-supported Ubuntu LTS release without the installation of additional packages. Targeting the oldest still-supported LTS is to ensure that the AppImage will run not only on the very latest, but also on older target systems, such as enterprise distributions (not limited to Ubuntu)
• Should ideally be self-contained, i.e., not need a compatible C library (glibc) on the system, either because it contains no dynamically linked code or because it ships its own C library including the loader (ld-linux-*.so.*), and use the statically linked AppImage runtime. The test detects this and the directory shows it on the page of the application
• Must execute in our GitHub Actions based testing environment
• Must work with X11 (we don't have tests for Wayland as it is [broken, fragmented, and unsupportable])(https://gist.github.com/probonopd/9feb7c20257af5dd915e3a9f2d1f2277)
• Must pass appdir-lint.sh
• Must have a desktop file that passes desktop-file-validate
• Must run without active Internet connection (and at least show some information)
• Should have an AppStream metainfo file in usr/share/metainfo. If it does, must pass appstreamcli validation
• Must show its main window within 30 seconds, without network access. The test fails if the window is empty (e.g., only a menu bar on a blank background) or shows an error message
• Should show a useful screen rather than some crude dialog box since the main window will be used for the main screenshots. Note that you can provide your own screenshots by using an AppStream metainfo file
• Should be available under a constant URL that does not contain the version number. Alternatively, should be available on GitHub Releases or the openSUSE Build Service (you are free to suggest additional serices like these)
• Must display something sensible when there is no network connection (offline/air-gapped use). Electron apps, for example, can use something like

  (async () => {
    if (await isOnline() === true) {
      mainWindow.loadURL(HermesURL);
    } else {
      mainWindow.loadFile('offline.html')
    }
    mainWindow.maximize();
    mainWindow.show();
  })();

How to remove an application from the catalog

• Maintainers: comment /remove on the issue about the entry ("Where did the AppImage of NAME go?"), or run "Remove entry" in the Actions tab with the name(s). This removes data/NAME, database/NAME/ and apps/NAME.md and closes the issue.
• Anyone: delete the file in data/ in a pull request; once it is merged, the rest of the entry is removed automatically.

How to use

App stores and software centers can consume the metadata collected by this project. See AppImage ecosystem.

Currently we are providing a JSON feed at https://appimage.github.io/feed.json. If you would like to use this data but need changes, please contact us on #AppImage at irc.libera.chat, so that we can discuss an output format that would serve your needs best. PLEASE NOTE that the data output format is not finalized yet and is subject to change any time without prior notice, until we release a stable version of it.

Projects using this data

Here are some examples of projects using this data, to illustrate on how you can use this data in your own projects:

• https://github.com/lliurex/lliurex-store
• https://github.com/michaeldelago/aipm
• https://github.com/MuhammedKpln/chob
• https://github.com/Nitrux/nx-software-center
• https://github.com/prateekmedia/appimagepool
• https://github.com/sillasleal/appcenter
• https://github.com/simoniz0r/spm
• https://software.manjaro.org/appimages

Please contact us (or send a pull request) if you are using this data so that we can list your project here.