[bt-devel] Flatpak Distribution

[Gary Holmlund]

I have been experimenting with using flatpaks as a distribution for 
BibleTime. I as looked at snaps as a distribution method, but I believe 
that flatpaks are better.

For those who don't know, flatpaks and snaps basically package up the 
application and all the libraries needed to run it. This allows the same 
package to run on a variety of linux distributions. It also causes the 
installation size to be large. They typically contain the application 
and perhaps some libraries, but also require a runtime library package 
to be downloaded. The runtime library could be shared by other applications.

I have created a flatpak for BibleTime. I have tested it on the 
following platforms:
     ubuntu 17.10,  kununtu 17.10,  ubuntu gnome 17.04, ubuntu gnome 16.04,
     fedora 27,  fedora 26,  arch,  debian 9

In the installation instructions below, the runtime library 
org.kde.Platform, is provided by flathub.org. The BibleTime application 
is provided by my server, holmlund.info. The BibleTime application will 
later be hosted on flathub.org. (Xiphos is already there)

The instructions assume you have the flatpak command installed. For help 
with this see https://flatpak.org/getting.html


flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub 
https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

wget holmlund.info/pub.gpg

flatpak remote-add   --gpg-import=pub.gpg   bibletime.repo 
https://holmlund.info/repo

flatpak install  bibletime.repo  info.bibletime.BibleTime


To run BibleTime from the command line:

flatpak run info.bibletime.BibleTime

The first time may be slower than others. Depending upon your linux 
distribution, you may be able to search for BibleTime and find the 
graphical start up icon.

Please reply to this with any feedback.

Gary Holmlund