Please provide an AppImage for download

[probonopd]

work_crawler/package.json

Line 33 in 2990a8d

"AppImage",

Please provide an AppImage for download on the project's GitHub Releases page.

Providing an AppImage would have, among others, these advantages:

• Applications packaged as an AppImage can run on many distributions (including Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, elementaryOS, Linux Mint, and others)
• One app = one file = super simple for users: just download one AppImage file, make it executable, and run
• No unpacking or installation necessary
• No root needed
• No system libraries changed
• Works out of the box, no installation of runtimes needed
• Optional desktop integration with appimaged
• Optional binary delta updates, e.g., for continuous builds (only download the binary diff) using AppImageUpdate
• Can optionally GPG2-sign your AppImages (inside the file)
• Works on Live ISOs
• Can use the same AppImages when dual-booting multiple distributions
• Can be listed in the AppImageHub central directory of available AppImages
• Can double as a self-extracting compressed archive with the --appimage-extract parameter

Here is an overview of projects that are already distributing upstream-provided, official AppImages.

If you have questions, AppImage developers are on #AppImage on irc.freenode.net.

[kanasimi]

Thanks for your suggestion. I might provide an AppImage, but it will take some time to implement the features.

[probonopd]

Actually I think electron-builder can "just do" it...

[probonopd]

This was closed, why? Is it available for download now?

[kanasimi]

Thank you for your attention. I try to create an executable package but it seems still some problems. I will try again...

[probonopd]

Please let me know if I can help. Which issues are you running into?

[kanasimi]

I try to make an executable package. It seems OK on .exe, but it is sad that I don't have a linux environment. May you please help me to check if the linux executable or not? Thank you!

[probonopd]

Yes I can test, is it available for download? Thanks.

[kanasimi]

I plase it on https://github.com/kanasimi/work_crawler/releases.

[probonopd]

work_crawler seems to be a ELF 32-bit LSB executable. Can you upload a 64-bit one please? Thanks.

[kanasimi]

OK, I have uploaded a x64 version. And it is strange that after I running electron-builder -wl, the .exe file lies outside of the win-unpacked directory, but the linux file is inside the linux-unpacked directory. Is it normal for an AppImage?

[probonopd]

Normally you should get a file with ".AppImage" at the end of the filename. I think you did not upload the AppImage file. Please search whether you have a file that ends in ".AppImage" and upload that. Thanks.

[kanasimi]

Following the instructions on https://www.electron.build/configuration/linux#appimageoptions , I set "executableName" : "work_crawler-linux.AppImage" and get an AppImage file. May you help me to test it? Thank you.

[probonopd]

Looks like you have renamed the Linux executable to "AppImage" but this is not an AppImage. It does not work. I am not an electron-builder expert but I think the AppImage should be generated in the same location where the deb is also generated.

[kanasimi]

So it is a deb file. But when I specify "AppImage" only, it seems still the same file. Do you know any projects using electron-builder to generate AppImage?

[probonopd]

Possibly a bug? cc @develar

[kanasimi]

By the way, I use Windows 7 to run:

> node_modules\.bin\electron-builder --linux --x64
electron-builder 19.49.3
No native production dependencies
Packaging for linux x64 using electron 1.8.1 to build\linux-unpacked
Schedule remote appImage build for arch x64
>

and no file lies outside build\linux-unpacked.

[probonopd]

Ah, you are using a Windows machine to do the builds? I am not 100% sure whether this can do AppImages. I know that macOS can do, but I am not sure about Windows. (If it can't, I'd expect an error message though...)

[develar]

electron-builder provides cloud service to build AppImage on Windows (Schedule remote appImage build). It is in testing phase. It seems due to some bug cloud service doesn't build AppImage for you. Anyway, you can use Docker. https://www.electron.build/multi-platform-build#docker

[kanasimi]

Well, I borrow a linux machine and find that electron-builder just works. It seems electron-builder --linux won't work on Windows.

@develar By the way, I try to specify a png file as icon, but it do not shown as expected. Are there any other things I need to be aware of?

[develar]

@kanasimi electron-userland/electron-builder#748 electron-userland/electron-builder#2269 (comment)

[kanasimi]

@develar Thank you! But even I set new BrowserWindow({icon:...}) and run under command line, the icon is still a blue "?" sign. I use Ubuntu 16.04.3. Perhaps I should try another method...