Yui - AppImage Manager for Linux

Yui is a CLI (Command Line Interface) tool designed to manage AppImage applications on Linux. With Yui, you can install, update, remove, and list AppImage applications directly from GitHub repositories. It also handles automatic integration with your Linux desktop menu.

Features

• Easy Installation - Just provide the GitHub owner/repo, and Yui automatically downloads the latest AppImage version.
• Desktop Integration - Automatically extracts .desktop files and icons so applications appear in your application launcher.
• Bulk Updates - Update all installed AppImage applications with a single command.
• Local Repo Management - Stores application metadata in a local repository (JSON) for version tracking.

Technology Stack

• Python
• argparse - CLI argument parsing.
• requests - HTTP client for interacting with the GitHub API.
• filelock - File locking for secure repository access.
• pytest & pytest-mock - Testing framework.
• subprocess - Mounts AppImages for metadata extraction.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 or newer
• Linux
• The target application must have AppImage files available as release assets in its GitHub repository

Installation Steps

You can install Yui using the provided Makefile (recommended) or manually.

Using Makefile (Recommended)

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/garpra/yui.git
cd yui

2. Setup the environment and install dependencies:

make setup

3. (Optional) Build a standalone executable:

make build

This will create a single yui binary that can be run without requiring Python or a virtual environment.

Manual Installation

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/garpra/yui.git
cd yui

2. Create and activate a virtual environment (optional, but recommended):

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run Yui:

python app.py --help

Makefile Commands

Command	Description
make setup	Create virtual environment and install dependencies
make build	Build a standalone executable using Nuitka
make clean	Remove virtual environment and build artifacts

Usage

Install an Application

Install an AppImage from a GitHub repository using the owner/repo format:

python app.py install owner/repo

Example:

python app.py install jmeter/jmeter

List Installed Applications

Display all applications managed by Yui:

python app.py list

Update All Applications

Update all installed AppImage applications to their latest versions:

python app.py update

Remove an Application

Uninstall a managed application:

python app.py remove owner/repo

Data & Directories

Yui stores its data in ~/.local/share/yui/ (customizable via the YUI_DATA_DIR environment variable):

Path	Description
~/.local/share/yui/appimage/	Downloaded AppImage files
~/.local/share/yui/repos.json	Metadata for installed applications
~/.local/share/applications/	.desktop files (Linux menu integration)
~/.local/share/icons/	Application icons

Testing

Run the full suite of unit tests:

pytest