Linux — .run installer

format = "linux" builds a real Linux distribution and emits a self-extracting installer in appdist/<target>/dist/:

• <name>-<version>-<target>.run — a self-extracting installer (a POSIX shell script with the compressed image payload appended).

Only platform = "linux-x86_64" may use this format.

Build requirements

None. The launchers are shell scripts and the payload is compressed with Python’s own tarfile, so no compiler and no external compression tool is needed on the build machine.

Configuration

categories

freedesktop .desktop Categories value (default "Utility;"). Used only for launchers that define an icon.

compression

Payload compression for the .run: "gzip", "bzip2" or "xz" (default "xz"). The matching decompressor must be present on the target machine at install time.

[[tool.pyappdist.targets]]
name = "linux"
platform = "linux-x86_64"
format = "linux"
# categories = "Utility;Development;"   # for launchers that set an icon
# compression = "xz"                    # "gzip" | "bzip2" | "xz" (default "xz")

Install behavior

The .run installer verifies the payload’s SHA-256 before extracting, so a corrupted download is rejected rather than half-installed. It needs no root and no FUSE: it copies the tree into <prefix>/lib/<name> ($HOME/.local by default; override with --prefix), symlinks each launcher into <prefix>/bin, and — only for launchers that set an icon — writes a .desktop entry. It also drops an uninstall.sh next to the install, and ./<app>.run --uninstall removes it. Running a newer .run replaces an existing install in place — the previous install’s uninstall.sh runs first, so files renamed or removed between versions don’t linger.

$ ./myapp-1.0-linux.run            # install into ~/.local
$ ./myapp-1.0-linux.run --prefix ~/opt
$ ./myapp-1.0-linux.run --uninstall

Each launcher becomes a small relocatable shell wrapper that runs the entry point with the bundled interpreter. On Linux the launcher gui key only affects the .desktop entry of a launcher with an icon — gui = true sets Terminal=false so the app opens without a terminal window. Application updates are the app’s own responsibility — pyappdist provides no auto-update mechanism.