As far as I understand, linuxdeployqt has two modes of operation: AppImage mode (-appimage), and AppDir mode (-appimage flag not set). The AppImage mode is great, it instantly gives me a portable executable with a single line in the terminal, but I can’t deploy any extra resources. I don’t want to embed them into the Qt resource system, I just want to put the files and folders alongside the binary inside the AppImage. And there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to do that. I think I need to run linuxdeployqt, then create the proper AppDir structure (or maybe the other way around), deploy a proper .desktop file, and then I can add my other files and wrap it all up into AppImage. But why does it have to be so difficult? linuxdeployqt already can create the proper AppDir structure and dummy .desktop and icon files, why can’t it do the same in no-appimage mode? Then I could simply run linuxdeployqt, copy the extra file, and create AppImage, no extra steps required.
Adding extra files should be easy: Just run appimagetool twice and add the extra resources in between the two runs.
But doesn’t appimagetool require me to create the proper structure first? Maybe I was misinformed, let me check.
Yes, but what is the problem? The make command normally creates this structure for you anyway.
I’m packing my own Qt application and I would need to create the structure myself. It’s a hassle that feels totally unnecessary. I’m fully content with “one-click” operation of linuxdeployqt, but it doesn’t let me add extra resource files to the AppImage.