Make a Flatpak package and publish on Flathub
Newbytee opened this issue · comments
It's a great idea, but Flathub only accepts a stable versions, I know because I maintain 2 packages (Warzone 2100 and Speed Dreams, 2 open source games) .
If Andreas likes the idea, I offer myself for such a task in the future, even in AppImage format, which is to download, give run permissions and that's it.
Has it been said that no releases will be tagged for this software?
This experiment isn't ready for that kind of stability :).
If anything it will be merged into the SerenityOS/serenity repo where potential users can build it from source like everything else in serenity.
There are no tagged releases for any Serenity-derived software.
I see. In that case, does it make more sense to close this request?
I think there are some options to consider before closing this issue:
- I've seen some instances of
Devflathub apps, e.g com.google.ChromeDev, I guess the same could be done to ladybird. - In the official FlatHub, there is the concept of "nightly" builds but seems to be treated on case-by-case basis (ref).
- Although more involved, the SerenityOS project could host their own FlatHub repository with their packages that will allow them to deploy the flatpaks continuously without following the guidelines from the official FlatHub.
Publishing a FlatPack implies at least some level of support for nightly builds.
SerenityOS is a project for developers, by developers. End users are expected to be the developers themselves. I doubt the development flow of the ladybird browser will be any different, especially if (when?) it's folded back into the main serenity project monorepo.
We've discussed this on discord many times for things like nightly ISOs of SerenityOS, and always come back to the fact that the build steps serve as an intentional but (very) low barrier of entry to ensure that the person running the code is at least capable of contributing code back.
If someone wants to host their own builds of either Serenity or its derived non-serenity applications on their own, I don't think anyone will be upset, but please don't expect a community of developers who are doing things because they're fun to develop to support an extremely WIP project at the level of other existing browsers for non-developer users.
A notice that "there's no support, build it and please contribute back" will likely not be read by people who download the project, try to visit their favorite website, find out it doesn't load, and then clutter the issue tracker with "I went to website X and it crashed" with no actionable backtrace or other bug triaging information.
Closing per @ADKaster's comments.
I've made the AppImage for Linux x64 based on this appimage-builder recipe. It hasn't been tested outside my PC. If anybody want to optimize it, go ahead.
Instead of realsing it on the default/stable flathub repo , there is also th beta-repo.
https://dl.flathub.org/beta-repo/
That might be a good alternative for interested developers to follow the project/releases.
I second @igorlogius' comment. The beta repo is made exactly for this, the application won't appear in the Flathub or in any distribution repository by default, but enthusiasts might be able to follow along, and they will have to add the beta repository manually anyway.
I would definitely prefer the Flatpak in that case, as I'm technical enough to run the beta version, yet I'm not actively following this project enough to compile and run it myself at the moment.
In fact, I could write the Flatpak manifest myself, but I'd rather not waste time if upstream is against the idea.
Also nothing is forcing this to go on flathub, instead a custom flatpak remote can be set up (with the packages built in CI and deployed there) and all interested people just add that repo to their flatpak install.