Provided by: distrobox_1.3.1-2_all 
NAME
distrobox-export
DESCRIPTION
Application and service exporting
distrobox-export takes care of exporting an app a binary or a service from the container
to the host.
The exported app will be easily available in your normal launcher and it will
automatically be launched from the container it is exported from.
SYNOPSIS
distrobox-export
--app/-a: name of the application to export
--bin/-b: absolute path of the binary to export
--service/-s: name of the service to export
--delete/-d: delete exported application or service
--export-label/-el: label to add to exported application name.
Defaults to (on \$container_name)
--export-path/-ep: path where to export the binary
--extra-flags/-ef: extra flags to add to the command
--sudo/-S: specify if the exported item should be run as sudo
--help/-h: show this message
--verbose/-v: show more verbosity
--version/-V: show version
You may want to install graphical applications or user services in your distrobox. Using
distrobox-export from inside the container will let you use them from the host itself.
EXAMPLES
distrobox-export --app mpv [--extra-flags "flags"] [--delete] [--sudo]
distrobox-export --service syncthing [--extra-flags "flags"] [--delete] [--sudo]
distrobox-export --bin /path/to/bin --export-path ~/.local/bin [--extra-flags "flags"] [--delete] [--sudo]
App export example
distrobox-export --app abiword
This tool will simply copy the original .desktop files along with needed icons, add the
prefix /usr/local/bin/distrobox-enter -n distrobox_name -e ... to the commands to run, and
save them in your home to be used directly from the host as a normal app.
Service export example
distrobox-export --service syncthing --extra-flags "--allow-newer-config"
distrobox-export --service nginx --sudo
For services, it will similarly export the systemd unit inside the container to a
systemctl --user service, prefixing the various ExecStart ExecStartPre ExecStartPost
ExecReload ExecStop ExecStopPost with the distrobox-enter command prefix.
The exported services will be available in the host’s user’s systemd session, so
systemctl --user status exported_service_name
will show the status of the service exported.
Binary export example
distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/code --extra-flags "--foreground" --export-path $HOME/.local/bin
In the case of exporting binaries, you will have to specify where to export it (--export-
path) and the tool will create a little wrapper script that will distrobox-enter -e from
the host, the desired binary. This can be handy with the use of direnv to have different
versions of the same binary based on your env or project.
The exported binaries will be exported in the “–export-path” of choice as a wrapper script
that acts naturally both on the host and in the container. Note that “–export-path” is
NOT OPTIONAL, you have to explicitly set it.
Additional flags
You can specify additional flags to add to the command, for example if you want to export
an electron app, you could add the “–foreground” flag to the command:
distrobox-export --app atom --extra-flags "--foreground"
distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/vim --export-path ~/.local/bin --extra-flags "-p"
distrobox-export --service syncthing --extra-flags "-allow-newer-config"
This works for services, binaries, and apps. Extra flags are only used then the exported
app, binary, or service is used from the host, using them inside the container will not
include them.
Unexport
The option “–delete” will un-export an app, binary, or service.
distrobox-export --app atom --delete
distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/vim --export-path ~/.local/bin --delete
distrobox-export --service syncthing --delete
distrobox-export --service nginx --delete
Run as root in the container
The option “–sudo” will launch the exported item as root inside the distrobox.
Exporting apps from rootful containers
It is worth noting that, when exporting any item - which includes graphical apps - from
rootful containers (created with distrobox create --root), root privileges will be needed
every time the item is launched (in order to enter the rootful container), which, by
default, is done using sudo (see docs for distrobox-enter on how to customize that).
However, for graphical apps in specific, since they launch without a terminal, the usage
of sudo might, at first, make it impossible to launch them.
To fix this without needing to customize the sudo program, one can define a global
SUDO_ASKPASS environment variable on their machine, which is a PATH to an executable that
is run by sudo when no terminal is available (or when it is given the --askpass or -A
option), and the output of that executable to stdout is used as the password input. The
executable is called as many times is needed for authentication as root to succeed (unless
a limit of amount of attempts is reached).
To do this, pick a program to ask the user for graphical password input. In this example,
we will use zenity --password, which should be present for GNOME users (and can also be
installed in other DEs) - there are other options, such as kdialog --password "Message"
for KDE users.
Write the call to the desired program to a script file, for example to /usr/bin/my-
password-prompt (sample contents below):
#!/bin/sh
zenity --password "Authentication as root is required"
(You may save the script under, for example, ~/.local/bin if you want to keep it fully
local to your user.)
Afterwards, make it executable (e.g. run sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/my-password-prompt).
Then, make sure to set SUDO_ASKPASS to "/usr/bin/my-password-prompt" (replace with your
script’s path) in a global profile file, so that it is picked up by sudo when running
graphical apps (and, therefore, sudo will run the script you created to ask for a
password). This is done with the shell line export
SUDO_ASKPASS="/path/to/script/goes/here". You can do this for your user only by running
the command below (replace the script path as needed):
echo 'export SUDO_ASKPASS="/usr/bin/my-password-prompt"' >> ~/.profile
Which appends the appropriate line to the end of your ~/.profile file, thus making the
change local to your user. Alternatively, to set it system-wide (for all users), you may
create a file in /etc/profile.d/ (or equivalent for your system) with that line.
Now just log out and log back in, and graphical apps exported from rootful containers
should now be properly asking for root’s password before launching (instead of not
opening, if that was the case before).
Notes
Note you can use –app OR –bin OR –service but not together.
distrobox-export --service nginx --sudo
[IMAGE: app-export (https://user-
images.githubusercontent.com/598882/144294795-c7785620-bf68-4d1b-b251-1e1f0a32a08d.png)]
[IMAGE: service-export (https://user-
images.githubusercontent.com/598882/144294314-29a8921f-4511-453d-bf8e-d0d1e336db91.png)]
NOTE: some electron apps such as vscode and atom need additional flags to work from inside
the container, use the --extra-flags option to provide a series of flags, for example:
distrobox-export --app atom --extra-flags "--foreground"