Introduction

AppImage provides a way for upstream developers to provide “native” binaries for Linux users just the same way they could do for other operating systems. It allow packaging applications for any common Linux based operating system, e.g., Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE, RHEL, CentOS, Fedora etc. AppImages come with all dependencies that cannot be assumed to be part of each target system in a recent enough version and will run on most Linux distributions without further modifications.

AppImage is the format, and AppImageKit provides a reference implementation.

The following section provides an overview of the AppImage idea, the motives behind AppImage, and explains the basic concepts. Furthermore, there’s an overview over the currently existing software, and some words on upstream packaging.

Contents:

• Quickstart
  • How to run an AppImage
  • Getting help
• Motivation
  • Why would I as a user want to use AppImages?
  • Why would I as a developer want to make and distribute AppImages?
• AppImage advantages
  • Advantages for users
  • Advantages for system administrators
  • Advantages for application authors
  • Advantages for software testers
• Concepts
  • One app = one file
  • Do not depend on system-provided resources
  • Build on old systems, run on newer systems
  • AppImage specification
  • AppDirs
• Software Overview
  • AppImage project
  • Third-party tools
• A word on upstream packaging
  • Advantages
  • Disadvantages
  • If upstream packaging is not possible