flatpaker 0.0.4

Utilities to convert various kinds of native binaries into flatpaks.

flatpaker

Script to mostly automate creating flatpaks from published Ren'Py and Linux builds of RPGMaker MV and MZ. open to additional support

What is it?

It's a script that automatically handles much of the task of generating a flatpak for pre-built projects, including adding patches or mods. You write a small, simple toml file, fetch the sources, and get a ready to publish flatpak.

It currently automatically does the following automatically:

• Generates an appstream xml file
• Generates a .desktop file
• Extracts an icon from the game source, and installs it
• patches the game to honor $XDG_DATA_HOME for storing game data inside the sandbox (instead of needing $HOME access)
• sets up the sandbox to allow audio and display, but nothing else
• recompiles the program when mods are applied
• strips .rpy files to save space (keeping the rpyc files)
• strips windows and macos specific files
• allows local install or publishing to a repo
• allows generating static deltas after building

Why?

I like playing Ren'Py games sometimes. I also don't always trust random pre-compiled binaries from the internet. Flatpak provides a nice, convenient way to sandbox applications. It also makes supporting Steam Deck and Fedora immutable a breeze. But generating flatpaks by hand is a lot of work, especially when most of the process will be exactly the same for every renpy project.

How do I use it?

1. Download the compressed project
2. Download any mods or addons (optional)
3. Write a toml description
4. run flatpaker --install install-deps
5. run flatpaker --install build *.toml or flatpaker --export --gpg-sign build *.toml (for local install or for export to a shared repo)

Toml Format

[common]
  name = 'Game or VN'  # use properly formatted name like "The Cool Adventures of Bob", or "Bob's Quest 7: Lawnmower Confusion"
  reverse_url = 'com.example.JDoe'  # name will be appended
  # "Game" is added automatically
  # used freedesktop menu categories. see: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apas02.html
  categories = ['Simulation']
  engine = 'renpy'  # Or 'rpgmaker'

[appdata]
  summary = "A short summary, one sentence or so."
  description = """
    A longer description.

    probably on multiple \
    lines
    """

  # This is an optional value for the license of the renpy project itself.
  # If unset it defaults to LicenseRef-Proprietary.
  # if you have specific terms which are not an Open Source license, you can use the form:
  # LicenseRef-Proprietary=https://www.example.com/my-license
  # See: https://spdx.org/specifications for more information
  license = "SPDX identifier"

[appdata.content_rating]
  # optional
  # Uses OARS specifications. See: https://hughsie.github.io/oars/
  # keys should be ids, and the values are must be a rating (as a string):
  # none, mild, moderate, or intense
  language-profanity = "mild"

[appdata.releases]
  # optional
  # in the form "date = version"
  "2023-01-01" = "1.0.0"

# Optional, alternatively may be passed on teh command line
[[sources.archives]]
  # path must be set if this is provided
  path = "relative to toml or absolute path"

  # Optional, defaults to 1. How many directory levels to remove from this component
  strip_comonents = 2

# Optional, cannot be set from command line
[[sources.patches]]
  # path must be set if this is provided
  path = "relative to toml or absolute path"

  # Optional, defaults to 1. How many directory levels to remove from this component
  strip_comonents = 2

# Optional, cannot be set from command line
[[sources.files]]
  # path must be set if this is provided
  path = "relative to toml or absolute path"

  # Optional, if set the file will be installed to this name
  # Does not have to be set for .rpy files that go in the game root directory
  dest = "where to install"

Configuration

Some options can be given on the command line or via a configuration file. That file must be written to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/flatpaker/config.toml (if unset $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to ~/.config).

[common]
  # A gpg private key to sign with, overwritten by the --gpg option
  gpg-key = "0x123456789"

  # The absolute path to a repo to write to. overwritten by the --repo option
  repo = "/path/to/a/repo/to/export"

What is required?

• python 3.11 or a modern version of python3 with tomli
• flatpak-builder

Schema

A Json based schema is provided, which can be used with VSCode's EvenBetterToml extension. It may be useful elsewhere.