Make Inkscape installed through Flatpak callable in the terminal as 'inkscape'?

I have a Python-package that calls Inkscape as part of a conversion process. I have it installed, but through Flatpak. This means that calling inkscape does not work in the terminal, but rather flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape. I need the package to be able to call it as inkscape.

What is the best way to go about this?

Tzeentch ,
@Tzeentch@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Two utilities that may be handy for you here:

Pakrat: Automates and simplifies the process of creating alliases for flatpaks, good if you just need to make a few programs be simplified

Fuzzpak: Lets you do fuzzy searches for flatpaks(as in you just write fuzzpak inkscape and it auto looks for something with inkscape in the flatpak folder and launches it), good for when you want to simplify launching flatpaks in general without doing the process of configuring stuff manually

smileyhead ,

You can do an alias for the shell you use or make a symlink to /usr/local/bin/ for the entire system.

There are importany reasons why this is not the default, but you can do it as long as you are away you have done it. Like when programs installed via package manager and flatpak starts conflicting, you'll know why.

Galli ,

alias?

db2 ,

A good argument against containerization of programs tbh.

rotopenguin ,
@rotopenguin@infosec.pub avatar

A good argument against DOS 2.0 adding directories

OsrsNeedsF2P ,

Yup, pack it up folks. We spent years working to solve containerized applications with a granular permission system, but we can’t figure out how to make an executable run a command. It was a good run, but it’s over now.

db2 ,

Finally someone got the point instead of just downvoting. 🤣

juli ,

Use this github.com/DLopezJr/fp

ace ,
@ace@lemmy.ananace.dev avatar

Flatpak already creates executable wrappers for all applications as part of regular installs, though they’re by default named as the full package name.

For when inkscape has been installed into the system-wide Flatpak installation, you could simply symlink it like; ln -s /var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/org.inkscape.Inkscape /usr/local/bin/inkscape

For the user-local installation, the exported runnable is in ~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/bin instead.

rotopenguin ,
@rotopenguin@infosec.pub avatar

I handle it more like ln -s /var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/org.inkscape.Inkscape ~/.local/bin/inkscape

.local/bin is a directory that you may have to make, but your shell’s startup scripts should automatically add it to the PATH after that.

ace ,
@ace@lemmy.ananace.dev avatar

I personally use ~/.bin for my own symlinks, though I also use the user-specific installation instead of the system-wide one.
I wouldn’t guarantee that any automation handles ~/.local/bin or ~/.bin either, that would depend entirely on the distribution. In my case I’ve added both to PATH manually.

ad_on_is ,
@ad_on_is@lemmy.world avatar

Why don’t you check for both and use the one that’s available, otherwise print an error. Additionally you could read an env INKSCAPE_BIN and also include that in your checks.

So one could for example do INKSCAPE_BIN=‘distrobox enter arch – inkscape’ python main.py

cyberwolfie OP ,

It is not my package, but I could of course go ahead and change the source code directly to handle this. But I’d prefer a solution that would persist through updates.

OmnipotentEntity , (edited )
@OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org avatar

Put a shell script in your PATH named inkscape with the following content:


<span style="color:#323232;">#!/bin/sh
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape
</span>

Note that you can use a local folder in your home directory to house small executables and scripts like this, so you don’t have to touch your system config. I generally recommend using something like ~/.local/bin and add it to your PATH via your Shell’s RC file.

SSUPII ,

Or instead just make it an alias in your .bashrc

cyberwolfie OP ,

How does this deal with any flags passed?

OmnipotentEntity , (edited )
@OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org avatar

If you need to pass flags you can use


<span style="color:#323232;">flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape "$@"
</span>

To forward all of the arguments to the script. Note that this might be a bashism, so you might need to change your hash bang to /bin/bash as well. Double check though.

(An easy way to check if something is working as you assume is just prepend the line with echo.)

gnuhaut ,

This is not a bashism. It’ll work fine with any sh.

OmnipotentEntity ,
@OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org avatar

Thanks, I wasn’t sure it worked in sh. I’ve been surprised a lot before by seemingly simple stuff like this.

premavansmuuf ,

alias inkscape=“flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape” into your .bashrc.

cyberwolfie OP ,

Yeah, I tried this, and it works from my session, but I still got the same error from trying to run the program. I figured it was because it is called outside the bash session so the run commands have not been run, but is that perhaps not true?

ForynGilnith ,

If that’s the case, it’s a bit of an ugly hack but you could make a wrapper script placed in /usr/local/bin/inkscape like this:


<span style="color:#323232;">#!/bin/bash
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">flatpack run org.inkscape.Inkscape ${*}
</span>

(the ${*} will pass along all the arguments that the wrapper script was called with)

cyberwolfie OP ,

Thanks! I was trying to implement this, and was trying to figure out how to pass all the arguments! This worked for me! I got some other errors, but they don’t seem related to this, so now to find out what they are all about 😅

cybersandwich ,

This is a great little hack.

jsh ,

Saving this for later, that’s genius.

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