diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/guix.texi | 60 |
1 files changed, 56 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi index 8297ad2ca6e..5953fcfa26a 100644 --- a/doc/guix.texi +++ b/doc/guix.texi @@ -6955,6 +6955,16 @@ directly be used as a file system container image with the environment}, using commands like @command{singularity shell} or @command{singularity exec}. +@cindex AppImage, create an AppImage file with @command{guix pack} +Another format internally based on SquashFS is +@uref{https://appimage.org/, AppImage}. An AppImage file can be created +and executed without any special privileges: + +@example +file=$(guix pack -f appimage --entry-point=bin/guile guile) +$file --help +@end example + Several command-line options allow you to customize your pack: @table @code @@ -7071,6 +7081,48 @@ to install Guix-produced @samp{.rpm} packages on a system where installation or other, non-rpm packs. @end quotation +@item appimage +@cindex AppImage, create an AppImage file with @command{guix pack} +This produces an @uref{https://appimage.org/, AppImage file} with the +@samp{.AppImage} extension. AppImage is a SquashFS volume prefixed with +a runtime that mounts the SquashFS file system and executes the binary +provided with @option{--entry-point}. This results in a self-contained +archive that bundles the software and all its requirements into a single +file. When the file is made executable it runs the packaged software. + +@example +guix pack -f appimage --entry-point=bin/vlc vlc +@end example + +The runtime used by AppImages invokes the @command{fusermount3} command +to mount the image quickly. If that command is unavailable, the +AppImage fails to run, but it can still be started by passing the +@option{--appimage-extract-and-run} flag. + +@quotation Warning +When building an AppImage, always @emph{pass} the @option{--relocatable} +option (or @option{-R}, or @option{-RR}) to make sure the image can be +used on systems where Guix is not installed. A warning is printed when +this option is not used. +@end quotation + +@example +guix pack -f appimage --entry-point=bin/hello --relocatable hello +@end example + +@quotation Note +The resulting AppImage does not conform to the complete standard as it +currently does not contain a @file{.DirIcon} file. This does not impact +functionality of the AppImage itself, but possibly that of software used +to manage AppImages. +@end quotation + +@quotation Note +As the generated AppImage packages the complete dependency graph, it +will be larger than comparable AppImage files found online, which depend +on host system libraries. +@end quotation + @end table @cindex relocatable binaries @@ -7160,10 +7212,10 @@ execution engines listed above by setting the @cindex entry point, for Docker and Singularity images @item --entry-point=@var{command} -Use @var{command} as the @dfn{entry point} of the resulting pack, if the pack -format supports it---currently @code{docker} and @code{squashfs} (Singularity) -support it. @var{command} must be relative to the profile contained in the -pack. +Use @var{command} as the @dfn{entry point} of the resulting pack, if the +pack format supports it---currently @code{docker}, @code{appimage}, and +@code{squashfs} (Singularity) support it. @var{command} must be +relative to the profile contained in the pack. The entry point specifies the command that tools like @code{docker run} or @code{singularity run} automatically start by default. For example, you can |