# Distinction between linuxdeploy and appimagetool?

**URL:** <https://discourse.appimage.org/t/distinction-between-linuxdeploy-and-appimagetool/1128>\
**Category:** Creating AppImages\
**Created:** [March 26, 2019, 5:43am UTC](https://discourse.appimage.org/t/distinction-between-linuxdeploy-and-appimagetool/1128 "2019-03-26T05:43:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kid-pc-chen](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.appimage.org/kid-pc-chen/32/230_2.png) [@kid-pc-chen](https://discourse.appimage.org/u/kid-pc-chen)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:43am UTC](https://discourse.appimage.org/t/distinction-between-linuxdeploy-and-appimagetool/1128/1 "2019-03-26T05:43:48Z")

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Sorry for asking newbie questions.

As far as I know  
appimagetool is the tool creating AppImages

> **[AppImage/AppImageKit](https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/)**
>
> Package desktop applications as AppImages that run on common Linux-based operating systems, such as RHEL, CentOS, openSUSE, SLED, Ubuntu, Fedora, debian and derivatives. Join #AppImage on irc.freen...

  
and  
linuxdeploy is designed to be an AppDir maintenance tool.  

> **[linuxdeploy/linuxdeploy](https://github.com/linuxdeploy/linuxdeploy)**
>
> AppDir creation and maintenance tool. Featuring flexible plugin system. - linuxdeploy/linuxdeploy

However, it seems I can just use linuxdeploy with its plugin to create a AppImage file.  
e.g.  
./linuxdeploy\*.AppImage --appdir AppDir --output appimage

appimagetool seems has nothing to do.  
when should I use appimagetool?

Besides, I was wondering why linuxdeploy skips those runtime libraries (such as /usr/lib/x86\_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6)  
when deploying dependencies

Thanks

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**Author:** ![probono](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.appimage.org/probono/32/81_2.png) [@probono](https://discourse.appimage.org/u/probono)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 6:45am UTC](https://discourse.appimage.org/t/distinction-between-linuxdeploy-and-appimagetool/1128/2 "2019-03-27T06:45:49Z")

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Tools like linuxdeployqt and the linuxdeploy AppImage plugin come with and use appimagetool as a lower-level tool under the hood to convert the generated AppDir to AppImage. Unless you are doing very special things, there is usually no need to operate appimagetool directly.

See [https://docs.appimage.org](https://docs.appimage.org) for the packaging guide.

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**Author:** ![kid-pc-chen](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.appimage.org/kid-pc-chen/32/230_2.png) [@kid-pc-chen](https://discourse.appimage.org/u/kid-pc-chen)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 6:58am UTC](https://discourse.appimage.org/t/distinction-between-linuxdeploy-and-appimagetool/1128/3 "2019-03-27T06:58:55Z")

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@probono  
Excuse me. Would you please help me to figure out linuxdeploy does not package core library.  
I have read the wiki page about creating appimages that are compatible with many systems.

> **[AppImage/AppImageKit](https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/Creating-AppImages#creating-appimages-that-are-compatible-with-many-systems)**
>
> Package desktop applications as AppImages that run on common Linux-based operating systems, such as RHEL, CentOS, openSUSE, SLED, Ubuntu, Fedora, debian and derivatives. Join #AppImage on irc.freen...

  
and I notice that linuxdeploy does not package core library such as libc.so.6, libstdc++.so.6, etc.

I would like to know why not to package them.

Thank you. You guys did awesome works.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![probono](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.appimage.org/probono/32/81_2.png) [@probono](https://discourse.appimage.org/u/probono)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 5:29am UTC](https://discourse.appimage.org/t/distinction-between-linuxdeploy-and-appimagetool/1128/4 "2019-04-02T05:29:17Z")

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This is intentional. Why would you want to package them? They are part of every Linux target system, and we are not packaging them in order to make the resulting AppImages less “bloated”.

For more information, please see [https://docs.appimage.org/introduction/concepts.html](https://docs.appimage.org/introduction/concepts.html).