Packaging elementary OS apps

Why use AppImages for elementary OS apps?

An AppImage is an application (and its dependencies) contained within one file. elementary OS is an operating system with a fresh approach to doing things, and a vibrant developer and tester community. Being able to bundle an application into a single file makes it easy for developers and users to exchange apps.

Example

In this example, we are packaging the Birdie app as an AppImage.

First, we compile AppImageKit:

sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get -y install libfuse-dev libglib2.0-dev cmake git
git clone https://github.com/probonopd/AppImageKit/
cd AppImageKit
cmake .
make

Now, we convert the Birdie deb and its dependencies into an AppImage:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:birdie-team/stable
export APP=birdie 
./apt-appdir/apt-appdir $APP 
./AppImageAssistant $APP.AppDir $APP.AppImage 

Now we can run the AppImage:

./$APP.AppImage