flatpak_aliaser

This project allows you to automatically generate aliases for installed flatpak packages, to make them easier to run from the terminal.

For example instead of typing flatpak run com.discordapp.Discord you can just type discord.

Installation

install flatpak and install any package.
install cargo
Run cargo install flatpak_aliaser to install this program.
Done! you should be able to run the program, by running flatpak_aliaser in the terminal.

Usage

Let's assume you'd want to create an alias, for the discord flatpak.

First you'd need to install the discord flatpak by running flatpak install flathub com.discordapp.Discord in the terminal. Once installation has completed, run this program by running flatpak_aliaser.

If the program runs succesfully, it will create a new file at ~/.flatpak_aliases. This file should contain the line: alias discord='flatpak run com.discordapp.Discord'.

To add the alias to your enviorment, first open your bashrc by running nano ~/.bashrc, and adding . ~/.flatpak_aliases to the end of that file. Finally, restart your terminal, to load the new aliases.

You should now be able to start the discord flatpak, by typing discord instead of flatpak run com.discordapp.Discord.

Configuration

Sometimes the default way of generating aliases, does not produce the alias you want, or perhaps you want to run a flatpak with options. In that case you can change the config file to alter the aliases that are generated.

The configuration file is located at ~/.config/flatpak_aliaser/config.toml and should be created, when you run the program for the first time.

Ommitting a flatpak

If you don't want a package to get an alias, add the full package name tot the do_not_alias section of the config file. For example, if you wanted to ommit 'app.example.org', you would alter the line to look like this do_not_alias = ['app.example.org']

Providing an alternate alias, or running a flatpak with options

Sometimes the default way of generating an alias, does not create the alias you need, or you want to run a program with options. This can be done, by adding another variable, to the special_aliases section of the config file.

For example, by default flatpak run com.sublimetext.three (sublime text) will get turned into three. But by adding ['com.sublimetext.three', 'sublime', '-n'] to the special aliases section of the config file, it get turned into sublime instead.

The 1st string 'com.sublimetext.three' is the package you want to alias. The 2nd string 'sublime' is the command to run this package. The 3rd string '-n' is for configuring options used to run the flatpak. this string may be left empty, if you don't want to use any options.

In this case the command sublime will alias flatpak run com.sublimetext.three -n

Changing the default output file

By default, this program will create an output file at ~/.flatpak_aliases. To change this, open the config file, and change destination_path, to whatever you require.

preserving capitalisation

By default this program generates aliases, that are all lowercase. So com.discordapp.Discord will get aliased as discord instead of Discord. To disable this feature, open the config, and change aliases_all_lowercase from true to false