Running AppImages
This page shows how a user can run AppImages, on their favorite distribution using the desktop environment tools or via the terminal. Also, it explains the concept of desktop integration, and presents tools that can be used for this purpose.
Contents
Download, make executable, run
It’s quite simple to run AppImages. As the heading says, just download them, make them executable and run them. This can either be done using the GUI or via the command line.
See also
Information on how to run AppImages was moved into our Quickstart page.
Please see How to run an AppImage for more information.
Mount or extract AppImages
To inspect the contents of any AppImage, it is possible to either mount them without running them, or extract the contents to a directory in the current working directory..
Mount an AppImage
AppImages can be mounted in the system to provide read-only access for users to allow for inspecting the contents.
To mount an AppImage temporarily, you have two options. The easiest way to do so is to call AppImages with the special parameter --appimage-mount, for example:
> my.AppImage --appimage-mount
/tmp/mount_myXXXX
# now, use another terminal or file manager to inspect the contents in the directory printed by --appimage-mount
The AppImage is unmounted when the application called in the example is interrupted (e.g., by pressing Ctrl+C, closing the terminal etc.).
Note
This is only available for type 2 AppImages. Type 1 AppImages do not provide any self-mounting mechanism. To mount type 1 AppImages, use mount -o loop.
This method is to be preferable, as other methods have some major disadvantages explained below.
Another way to mount AppImages is to use the normal mount command toolchain of your Linux distribution. Mounting and unmounting devices, files, images and also AppImages requires root permissions. Also, you need to provide a mountpoint. Please see the following example:
For type 1 AppImages:
> mkdir mountpoint
> sudo mount my.AppImage mountpoint/
# you can now inspect the contents
> sudo umount mountpoint/
For type 2 AppImages:
> mkdir mountpoint
> my.AppImage --appimage-offset
> 123456
> sudo mount my.AppImage mountpoint/ -o offset=123456
# you can now inspect the contents
> sudo umount mountpoint/
Note that the number 123456 is just an example here, you will likely see another number.
Warning
AppImages mounted using this method are not unmounted automatically. Please do not forget to call umount the AppImage as soon as you don’t need it mounted any more.
If an AppImage is not unmounted properly, and is moved to a new location, a so-called “dangling mount” can be created. This should be avoided by properly unmounting the AppImages.
Note
Type 2 AppImages which are mounted using the --appimage-mount parameter are not affected by this problem!
See also
There is currently no way to use the former method without calling the target AppImage. This might not always be appropriate, e.g., if the AppImage is not trustworthy.
The AppImage team is working on implementing a mount option in appimagetool. Please see the related GitHub issue for progress on this.
Extract the contents of an AppImage
An alternative to mounting the AppImages is to extract their contents. This allows for modifying the contents. The resulting directory is a valid AppDir, and users can create AppImages from them again using appimagetool.
Analog to mounting AppImages, there is a simple commandline switch to extract the contents of type 2 AppImages without external tools. Just call the AppImage with the parameter --appimage-extract. This will cause the runtime to create a new directory called squashfs-root, containing the contents of the AppImage’s AppDir.
Type 1 AppImages require the deprecated tool AppImageExtract to extract the contents of an AppImage. It’s very limited functionality wise, and requires a GUI to run. It creates a new directory in the user’s desktop directory.
See also
There is currently no way to use the former method without calling the target AppImage. This might not always be appropriate, e.g., if the AppImage is not trustworthy.
The AppImage team is working on implementing a mount option in appimagetool. Please see the related GitHub issue for progress on this.
Integrating AppImages into the desktop
AppImages are standalone bundles, and do not need to be installed. However, some users may want their AppImages to be available like distribution provided applications. This primarily involves being able to launch desktop applications from their desktop environments’ launchers. This concept is called desktop integration.
appimaged
appimaged is a daemon that monitors the system and integrates AppImages. It monitors a predefined set of directories on the user’s system searching for AppImages, and integrates them into the system using libappimage.
See also
More information on appimaged can be found in appimaged.
AppImageLauncher
AppImageLauncher is a helper application for Linux distributions serving as a kind of “entry point” for running and integrating AppImages. It makes a user’s system AppImage-ready™.
AppImageLauncher must be installed into the system to be able to integrate into the system properly. It uses technologies that are independent from any desktop environment features, and therefore should be able to run on most distributions.
After install AppImageLauncher, you can simply double-click AppImages in file managers, browsers etc. You will be prompted whether to integrate the AppImage, or run it just once. When you choose to integrate your AppImage, the file will be moved into the directory ~/Applications. This helps reducing the mess of AppImages on your file system and prevents you from having to search for the actual AppImage file if you want to e.g., remove it.
To provide a complete solution for managing AppImages on the system, AppImageLauncher furthermore provides solutions for updating and removing AppImages from the system. These functions can be found in the context menus of the entries in the desktop’s launcher.
See also
More information about AppImageLauncher can be found in AppImageLauncher.
Troubleshooting
Please refer to our Troubleshooting page.