A couple of Flatpack conceptual questions
by taylorkh from LinuxQuestions.org on (#52WYD)
I believe I understand the basic concepts behind the Flatpack application distribution scheme. An application will carry with it the libraries and other support files required for it to run and these files will be isolated (sandboxed) from the OS on which it runs. This would allow an application to use old, obsolete libraries for example. I have been reading the documentation on the Flatpack site and I could probably build their example Hello World script Flatpack. However...
What I need to do is to take the source code from an existing application (gnome-commander) and Flatpack it so that I can run it on an OS which no longer provides the necessary libraries (e.g. CentoS 8 or Ubuntu 20.04.) I can figure out a laundry list of the dependencies by examining a working .rpm or .deb package and by studying the source code. Those could be added to the Flatpack without too much difficulty. Here is what I do not understand...
The Hello World example is simply a script. In the case of gnome-commander, the installation process is to grab the source and then run configure, make and make install. The gcc8 compiler creates the actual gnome-commander executable file. I do not understand how the Flatpack process does this. I assume it has to.
I am not familiar with the details of the gnome-commander source code. I am not a C programmer. Is there a way to feed the source into the Flatpack process so that the existing configure and make instructions would be followed in building the Flatpack?
All I have read so far seems to assume that the person building the Flatpack is the application developer, not an end user who needs to compile and package the application. Am I lost in space here?
TIA,
Ken
What I need to do is to take the source code from an existing application (gnome-commander) and Flatpack it so that I can run it on an OS which no longer provides the necessary libraries (e.g. CentoS 8 or Ubuntu 20.04.) I can figure out a laundry list of the dependencies by examining a working .rpm or .deb package and by studying the source code. Those could be added to the Flatpack without too much difficulty. Here is what I do not understand...
The Hello World example is simply a script. In the case of gnome-commander, the installation process is to grab the source and then run configure, make and make install. The gcc8 compiler creates the actual gnome-commander executable file. I do not understand how the Flatpack process does this. I assume it has to.
I am not familiar with the details of the gnome-commander source code. I am not a C programmer. Is there a way to feed the source into the Flatpack process so that the existing configure and make instructions would be followed in building the Flatpack?
All I have read so far seems to assume that the person building the Flatpack is the application developer, not an end user who needs to compile and package the application. Am I lost in space here?
TIA,
Ken