Provided by: flatpak-builder_0.10.9-1ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
flatpak-builder - Help build application dependencies
SYNOPSIS
flatpak-builder [OPTION...] DIRECTORY MANIFEST
flatpak-builder --run [OPTION...] DIRECTORY MANIFEST COMMAND
flatpak-builder --show-deps [OPTION...] MANIFEST
DESCRIPTION
flatpak-builder is a wrapper around the flatpak build command that automates the building
of applications and their dependencies. It is one option you can use to build
applications.
The goal of flatpak-builder is to push as much knowledge about how to build modules to the
individual upstream projects. It does this by assuming that the modules adhere to the
Build API specified at https://github.com/cgwalters/build-api. This essentially means that
it follows the ./configure && make && make install scheme with an optional autogen script.
If the upstream does not adhere to the API you can make it do so by adding patches and
extra files.
An invocation of flatpak-builder proceeds in these stages, each being specified in detail
in json format in MANIFEST:
• Download all sources
• Initialize the application directory with flatpak build-init
• Build and install each module with flatpak build
• Clean up the final build tree by removing unwanted files and e.g. stripping binaries
• Finish the application directory with flatpak build-finish
After this you will end up with a build of the application in DIRECTORY, which you can
export to a repository with the flatpak build-export command. If you use the --repo
option, flatpak-builder will do the export for you at the end of the build process. When
flatpak-builder does the export, it also stores the manifest that was used for the build
in /app/manifest.json. The manifest is 'resolved', i.e. git branch names are replaced by
the actual commit IDs that were used in the build.
At each of the above steps flatpak caches the result, and if you build the same file
again, it will start at the first step where something changes. For instance the first
version controlled source that had new commits added, or the first module where some
changes to the MANIFEST file caused the build environment to change. This makes
flatpak-builder very efficient for incremental builds.
MANIFEST
The manifest file is a json file whose format is described in detail in its own manual
page.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
-h, --help
Show help options and exit.
-v, --verbose
Print debug information during command processing.
--version
Print version information and exit.
--arch=ARCH
Specify the machine architecture to build for. If no architecture is specified, the
host architecture will be automatically detected. Only host compatible architectures
can be specified.
--default-branch=BRANCH
Set the default branch to BRANCH. This is used if the manifest does not specify a
branch. The default is master.
--disable-cache
Don't look at the existing cache for a previous build, instead always rebuild modules.
--disable-rofiles-fuse
Disable the use of rofiles-fuse to optimize the cache use via hardlink checkouts.
--disable-download
Don't download any sources. This only works if some version of all sources are
downloaded already. This is useful if you want to guarantee that no network i/o is
done. However, the build will fail if some source is not locally available.
--disable-updates
Download missing sources, but don't update local mirrors of version control repos.
This is useful to rebuild things but without updating git or bzr repositories from the
remote repository.
--disable-tests
Don't run any of the tests.
--run
Run a command in a sandbox based on the build dir. This starts flatpak build, with
some extra arguments to give the same environment as the build, and the same
permissions the final app will have. The command to run must be the last argument
passed to flatpak-builder, after the directory and the manifest.
Only the --arch=ARCH, --ccache and --verbose options can be combined with this option.
--build-shell=MODULENAME
Extract and prepare the sources for the named module, and then start a shell in a
sandbox identical to the one flatpak-builder would use for buildng the module. This is
useful to debug a module.
--show-deps
List all the (local) files that the manifest depends on.
Only the --verbose option can be combined with this option.
--download-only
Exit successfully after downloading the required sources.
--bundle-sources
Create an additional runtime with the source code for this module. It will be named
app-id.Sources, for example org.gnome.Maps.Sources.
--build-only
Don't do the cleanup and finish stages, which is useful if you want to build more
things into the app.
--finish-only
Only do the cleanup, finish and export stages, picking up where a --build-only command
left off.
--export-only
Only do the export stages, picking up the build result from a previous build. This can
be used to split the build and export/signature into two calls by leaving out --repo
in the first call.
--require-changes
Do nothing, leaving a non-existent DIRECTORY if nothing changes since last cached
build. If this is not specified, the latest version from the cache will be put into
DIRECTORY.
--state-dir=PATH
Use this directory for storing state (downloads, build dirs, build cache, etc) rather
than .flatpak-builder. This can be an absolute or relative path, but must be on the
same filesystem as the specified target DIRECTORY.
--keep-build-dirs
Don't remove the sources and build after having built and installed each module. This
also creates a symlink to the build directory with a stable name ("build-modulename").
--delete-build-dirs
Always remove the sources and build after having built each module, even if the build
failed. The default is to keep failed build directories but remove successful ones.
This is useful in e.g. automatic build systems.
--ccache
Enable use of ccache in the build (needs ccache in the sdk)
--stop-at=MODULENAME
Stop at the specified module, ignoring it and all the following ones in both the
"download" and "build" phases. This is useful for debugging and development. For
instance, you can build all the dependencies, but stop at the main application so that
you can then do a build from a pre-existing checkout. Implies --build-only.
--repo=DIR
When build is done, run export the result to this repository.
-s, --subject=SUBJECT
One line subject for the commit message. Used when exporting the build results.
-b, --body=BODY
Full description for the commit message. Used when exporting the build results.
--gpg-sign=KEYID
Sign the commit with this GPG key. Used when exporting the build results. This option
can be used multiple times.
--gpg-homedir=PATH
GPG Homedir to use when looking for keyrings. Used when exporting the build results.
--jobs=JOBS
Limit the number of parallel jobs during the build. The default is the number of CPUs
on the machine.
--force-clean
Erase the previous contents of DIRECTORY if it is not empty.
--sandbox
Disable the possibility to specify build-args that are passed to flatpak build. This
means the build process can't break out of its sandbox, and is useful when building
less trusted software.
--allow-missing-runtimes
Do not immediately fail if the sdk or platform runtimes are not installed on this
system. Attempting to build any manifest modules will still fail if the sdk is
missing, but may be useful for apps that install files without a sandbox build.
--rebuild-on-sdk-change
Record the exact version of the sdk in the cache, and rebuild everything if it
changes. This is useful if you're building against an API-unstable runtime, like a
nightly build.
--skip-if-unchanged
If the json is unchanged since the last build of this filename, then do nothing, and
return exit code 42.
--mirror-screenshots-url=URL
Mirror any screenshots in the appstream and rewrite the appstream xml as if they were
on the specified URL. The resulting files will be stored in the "screenshots"
subdirectory in the app directory and needs to be copied to the specified URL for the
appdata to work.
--extra-sources=SOURCE-DIR
When downloading sources (archives, files, git, bzr), look in this directory for
pre-existing copies and use them instead of downloading.
--extra-sources-url=URL
When downloading sources (archives, files, git, bzr), look at this url for mirrored
downloads before downloading from the original url.
--from-git=GIT
Look for the manifest in the given git repository. If this option is given, MANIFEST
is interpreted as a relative path inside the repository.
--from-git-branch=BRANCH
The branch to use with --from-git.
--install-deps-from=REMOTE
Install/update build required dependencies from the specified remote.
--install-deps-only
Stop after downloading dependencies.
--install
When the build is finished, install the result locally.
--user
Install the dependencies in a per-user installation.
--system
Install the dependencies in the default system-wide installation.
--installation=NAME
Install the dependencies in a system-wide installation specified by NAME among those
defined in /etc/flatpak/installations.d/. Using --installation=default is equivalent
to using --system.
CACHING
flatpak-builder caches sources and partial build results in the state directory
(defaulting to the .flatpak-builder subdirectory of the current directory). If you use
--keep-build-dirs, build directories for each module are also stored here.
It is safe to remove the state directory. This will force a full build the next time you
build.
EXAMPLES
$ flatpak-builder my-app-dir manifest.json
Example manifest file:
{
"id": "org.test.TestApp",
"runtime": "org.freedesktop.Platform",
"runtime-version": "1.2",
"sdk": "org.freedesktop.Sdk",
"command": "test",
"clean": [ "/include", "*.la" ],
"build-options" : {
"cflags": "-O2 -g",
"cxxflags": "-O2 -g",
"env": {
"V": "1"
},
"arch": {
"x86_64": {
"cflags": "-O3 -g",
}
}
},
"modules": [
{
"name": "pygobject",
"config-opts": [ "--disable-introspection" ],
"sources": [
{
"type": "archive",
"url": "http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/pygobject/2.28/pygobject-2.28.6.tar.xz",
"sha256": "fb8a1d4f665130a125011659bd347c7339c944232163dbb9a34fd0686577adb8"
},
{
"type": "patch",
"path": "required-pygobject-fix.patch"
},
{
"type": "file",
"path": "pygobject-extra-file",
"dest-filename": "extra-file"
}
]
},
{
"name": "babl",
"build-options" : { "cxxflags": "-O2 -g -std=c++11" },
"cleanup": [ "/bin" ],
"sources": [
{
"type": "git",
"url": "git://git.gnome.org/babl"
}
]
},
{
"name": "testapp",
"sources": [
{
"type": "bzr",
"url": "lp:testapp"
}
]
}
]
}
SEE ALSO
flatpak(1), flatpak-manifest(5) flatpak-build-init(1), flatpak-build(1), flatpak-build-
finish(1), flatpak-build-export(1)