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Flatpak manifest for GitHub Desktop app

This repository contains the files to create a Flatpak version of the GitHub Desktop Git client.

It is based on this fork which contains extra work for better Linux integration, that is, for now, not official.

Installation

To build and install this Flatpak, you have to install Flatpak, Flatpak builder and the Flathub repo. Don't forget to initialize this repo submodules. Then run:

flatpak-builder build io.github.shiftey.Desktop.yaml --repo=repo --install --force-clean --install-deps-from=flathub

Once installed, launch GitHub Desktop by running:

flatpak run io.github.shiftey.Desktop

Updating desktop repo and dependencies

Flatpak builder doesn't allow the build scripts to access the internet, so you have to download all the required dependencies beforehand. These dependencies are listed in the generated-sources.json file. That's the reason we have a fixed commit for building desktop repo, since that can guarantee that generated-sources.json dependencies match with the version of desktop we are building.

To update desktop repo to its latest commit and update the dependencies, you have to:

  1. Clone https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop inside this repo.

  2. Change the commit in io.github.shiftey.Desktop.yaml to the desired one:

    ...
          - type: git
            url: https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop.git
            commit: <put the commit here>
    ...
  3. Run generate-sources script to update generated-sources.json.

  4. Make sure the patches in the patches directory still apply.

  5. Once you are sure it works, make a PR with the changes.

Known Issues

  • Show in your File Manager does not open the file manager

    This happens because the default manager is not set in your environment. You need to add a default file manager to your ~/.config/mimeapps.list file. If you are using nautilus, this can be done by adding inode/directory=org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop to the end of the [Default Applications] section.

  • Git Hooks that spawn external programs do not work. This is non-fixable without a massive rewrite inside git to make it possible to spawn git hooks outside the flatpak container.