How to set update information wihtout using travis ci

[carlos22]

According to https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageUpdate this tool embeds the update information if you are using travis ci. Is it possible to define an update URI/config without using travis?

[TheAssassin]

You can't. You could only run appimagetool manually.

You can switch to linuxdeploy and linuxdeploy-plugin-qt however. linuxdeploy's built-in appimage plugin supports $UPDATE_INFORMATION. See https://docs.appimage.org/packaging-guide/from-source/linuxdeploy-user-guide.html# for more information.

[probonopd]

Well, you can use linuxdeploy --bundle-non-qt-libs and then run appimagetool -u ... on the AppDir.

[pbek]

@probonopd, what is the updateinformation parameter for? It's passing the information to appimagetool, but you need to create the appimage before you can create a zsync file with zsyncmake, right? 😅

[TheAssassin]

If you set that parameter, it is passed to appimagetool, and appimagetool will auto-generate such a .zsync file.

[pbek]

If you set that parameter, it is passed to appimagetool, and appimagetool will auto-generate such a .zsync file.

Thank you! Sounds nice. But doesn't the AppImage also contain the url to that zsync file or do I pass that future url with the updateinformation? In that case I would also be able to use the appimage updater with my GitHub Action built AppImage, right?

[probonopd]

The place in which the AppImage holds the URL to the zsync file is the update information:

https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageSpec/blob/master/draft.md#update-information

This information is not stored (again) anywhere else. You need to pass the "future url" in the update information format specified above.

[pbek]

Thank you, @probonopd. I saw there even is https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageSpec/blob/master/draft.md#github-releases. Do you have by any chance a repo with a workflow where you use that?

[TheAssassin]

Check this repo.

[pbek]

Can't see a github folder in this repo. 😅

[probonopd]

This repo is currently using Travis CI. On Travis CI the correct update information gets generated automatically thanks to appimagetool -g (which this tool uses under the hood), but for this to work with GitHub Actions AppImage/AppImageKit#1075 needs to be merged.