Portable Apps Creator for Linux
From hacktolive.org
Note: this project is nothing but a plan at the moment, no alpha/beta version is available
The goal of Portable Apps Creator for Linux is to make something like "VMware ThinApp for Linux" (make linux portable apps). It MIGHT use runz technology.
Contents |
How it MIGHT work in future
- On a first stage it would be focused on Ubuntu / Super OS
- To create the portable apps, we would grab all the .deb files of a program (+ dependencies), extract to a folder, and then use the "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" hack to make the app read the libraries (dependencies from that folder)
Problems and solutions
- It is a mess to carry a folder with many files -- solution: use RUNZ
- Some files (symbolic links) can't be used on most USB drives (because they contain FAT systems) -- solution: use RUNZ
- Making user data portable -- solution: use a method very similar to VMware ThinApp: if the portable app detects a folder named "runz" in the same folder of the portable app, then all user data is saved there. In case that folder is not found, then the app will save to the regular place (home), just like a "normal app". Or is the portable app is not in .runz format, simply save the user data in a sub-folder called "profile".
- Some apps require kernel modules and/or startup scripts -- POSSIBLE solution: use something like user mode linux (seems to be a "portable Linux kernel")
- Apps need to be updated: Insert a script on the launcher that checks for updates
