[FR]: Self updating appimage

[scop]

Description

The appimage should have a self update feature built in.

Who's implementing?

• I'm willing to implement this feature myself

The problem

Updating Helium on let's say Ubuntu (likely the largest distro out there) is quite a chore.

I'm aware of the suggestion to use Gear Lever to update the appimage. But installing another package manager/updater for that purpose is not great UX, and it's even worse on Ubuntu because Gear Lever is ~only available on Flathub, so one needs to first install another package manager/updater (Flatpak) support to get hold of Gear Lever, and then finally Helium.

Possible solutions

While it won't likely solve all problems such as neat desktop integration, I think making the appimage able to self update would at least solve the staying up to date angl.

I've no first hand implementation experience on this, but I know some appimages have that capability, e.g. Cursor.

Docs on appimange updatability including the self update option at https://docs.appimage.org/packaging-guide/optional/updates.htmle

Additional context

No response

[Samueru-sama]

With cromite I use this script which provides that functionality.

It also uses appimageupdatetool which means you have delta updates (only the diff is downloaded)

Upstream can add something similar.

because Gear Lever is ~only available on Flathub, so one needs to first install another package manager/updater (Flatpak) support to get hold of Gear Lever, and then finally Helium.

https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM

am -i helium

And far better than Gearlever, does delta updates (gearlever does not) and provides sandboxing functionality as well, and it is not like the sandbox of flatpak which breaks the internal sandbox of chromium.