The top level of the json file describes global attributes of the
application, how it can be built, and the list of modules that need to be
built.
Toplevel properties¶
These are the properties that are accepted:
id or app-id (string)
A string defining the application id.
branch (string)
The branch of the application, defaults to master.
runtime (string)
The name of the runtime that the application uses.
runtime-version (string)
The version of the runtime that the application uses,
defaults to master.
sdk (string)
The name of the development runtime that the application
builds with.
var (string)
Initialize the (otherwise empty) writable /var in the
build with a copy of this runtime.
metadata (string)
Use this file as the base metadata file when
finishing.
command (string)
The filename or path to the main binary of the
application. Note that this is really just a single file, not a commandline.
If you want to pass arguments, install a shell script wrapper and use that as
the command.
build-runtime (boolean)
Build a new runtime instead of an application.
build-extension (boolean)
Build an extension.
separate-locales (boolean)
Separate out locale files and translations to an
extension runtime. Defaults to true.
id-platform (string)
When building a runtime sdk, also create a platform based
on it with this id.
metadata-platform (string)
The metadata file to use for the platform we
create.
writable-sdk (boolean)
If true, use a writable copy of the sdk for /usr.
Defaults to true if build-runtime is specified.
appstream-compose (boolean)
Run appstream-compose during cleanup phase. Defaults to
true.
sdk-extensions (array of strings)
Install these extra sdk extensions in /usr.
platform-extensions (array of strings)
Install these extra sdk extensions when creating the
platform.
base (string)
Start with the files from the specified application. This
can be used to create applications that extend another application.
base-version (string)
Use this specific version of the application specified in
base. If unspecified, this uses the value specified in branch
base-extensions (array of strings)
Install these extra extensions from the base application
when initializing the application directory.
inherit-extensions (array of strings)
Inherit these extra extensions points from the base
application or sdk when finishing the build.
tags (array of strings)
Add these tags to the metadata file.
build-options (object)
Object specifying the build environment. See below for
details.
modules (array of objects or string)
An array of objects specifying the modules to be built in
order. String members in the array are interpreted as the name of a separate
json file that contains a module. See below for details.
cleanup (array of strings)
An array of file patterns that should be removed at the
end. Patterns starting with / are taken to be full pathnames (without the /app
prefix), otherwise they just match the basename.
cleanup-commands (array of strings)
An array of commandlines that are run during the cleanup
phase.
cleanup-platform (array of strings)
Extra files to clean up in the platform.
cleanup-platform-commands (array of strings)
An array of commandlines that are run during the cleanup
phase of the platform.
finish-args (array of strings)
An array of arguments passed to the flatpak
build-finish command.
rename-desktop-file (string)
Any desktop file with this name will be renamed to a name
based on id during the cleanup phase.
rename-appdata-file (string)
Any appdata file with this name will be renamed to a name
based on id during the cleanup phase.
rename-icon (string)
Any icon with this name will be renamed to a name based
on id during the cleanup phase. Note that this is the icon name, not the full
filenames, so it should not include a filename extension.
copy-icon (boolean)
If rename-icon is set, keep a copy of the old icon
file.
desktop-file-name-prefix (string)
This string will be prefixed to the Name key in the main
application desktop file.
desktop-file-name-suffix (string)
This string will be suffixed to the Name key in the main
application desktop file.
Build Options¶
Build options specify the build environment of a module, and can
be specified globally as well as per-module. Options can also be specified
on a per-architecture basis using the arch property.
These are the properties that are accepted:
cflags (string)
This is set in the environment variable CFLAGS during the
build. Multiple specifications of this (in e.g. per-arch area) are
concatinated with spaces inbetween.
cppflags (string)
This is set in the environment variable CPPFLAGS during
the build. Multiple specifications of this (in e.g. per-arch area) are
concatinated with spaces inbetween.
cxxflags (string)
This is set in the environment variable CXXFLAGS during
the build. Multiple specifications of this (in e.g. per-arch area) are
concatinated with spaces inbetween.
ldflags (string)
This is set in the environment variable LDFLAGS during
the build. Multiple specifications of this (in e.g. per-arch area) are
concatinated with spaces inbetween.
prefix (string)
The build prefix for the modules (defaults to /app for
applications and /usr for runtimes).
env (object)
This is a dictionary defining environment variables to be
set during the build. Elements in this override the properties that set the
environment, like cflags and ldflags.
build-args (array of strings)
This is an array containing extra options to pass to
flatpak build.
config-opts (array of strings)
This is an array containing extra options to pass to
configure.
strip (boolean)
If this is true (the default is false) then all ELF files
will be stripped after install.
no-debuginfo (boolean)
By default (if strip is not true) flatpak-builder
extracts all debug info in ELF files to a separate files and puts this in an
extension. If you want to disable this, set no-debuginfo to true.
arch (object)
This is a dictionary defining for each arch a separate
build options object that override the main one.
Module¶
Each module specifies a source that has to be separately built and
installed. It contains the build options and a list of sources to download
and extract before building.
Modules can be nested, in order to turn related modules on and off
with a single key.
These are the properties that are accepted:
name (string)
The name of the module, used in e.g. build logs. The name
is also used for constructing filenames and commandline arguments, therefore
using spaces or '/' in this string is a bad idea.
disabled (boolean)
If true, skip this module
sources (array of objects)
An array of objects defining sources that will be
downloaded and extracted in order
config-opts (array of strings)
An array of options that will be passed to
configure
make-args (array of strings)
An array of arguments that will be passed to make
make-install-args (array of strings)
An array of arguments that will be passed to make
install
rm-configure (boolean)
If true, remove the configure script before starting
build
no-autogen (boolean)
Ignore the existence of an autogen script
no-parallel-make (boolean)
Don't call make with arguments to build in parallel
install-rule (string)
Name of the rule passed to make for the install phase,
default is install
no-make-install (boolean)
Don't run the make install (or equivalent) stage
no-python-timestamp-fix (boolean)
Don't fix up the *.py[oc] header timestamps for ostree
use.
cmake (boolean)
Use cmake instead of configure (deprecated: use
buildsystem instead)
buildsystem (string)
Build system to use: autotools, cmake, cmake-ninja,
meson, simple
builddir (boolean)
Use a build directory that is separate from the source
directory
subdir (string)
Build inside this subdirectory of the extracted
sources
build-options (object)
A build options object that can override global
options
build-commands (array of strings)
An array of commands to run during build (between make
and make install if those are used). This is primarily useful when using the
"simple" buildsystem.
post-install (array of strings)
An array of shell commands that are run after the install
phase. Can for example clean up the install dir, or install extra files.
cleanup (array of strings)
An array of file patterns that should be removed at the
end. Patterns starting with / are taken to be full pathnames (without the /app
prefix), otherwise they just match the basename. Note that any patterns will
only match files installed by this module.
ensure-writable (array of strings)
The way the builder works is that files in the install
directory are hard-links to the cached files, so you're not allowed to modify
them in-place. If you list a file in this then the hardlink will be broken and
you can modify it. This is a workaround, ideally installing files should
replace files, not modify existing ones.
only-arches (array of strings)
If non-empty, only build the module on the arches
listed.
skip-arches (array of strings)
Don't build on any of the arches listed.
cleanup-platform (array of strings)
Extra files to clean up in the platform.
modules (array of objects or strings)
An array of objects specifying nested modules to be built
before this one. String members in the array are interpreted as names of a
separate json file that contains a module.
Sources¶
These contain a pointer to the source that will be extracted into
the source directory before the build starts. They can be of several types,
distinguished by the type property.
All sources
only-arches (array of strings)
If non-empty, only build the module on the arches
listed.
skip-arches (array of strings)
Don't build on any of the arches listed.
dest (string)
Directory inside the source dir where this source will be
extracted.
Archive sources (tar, zip)
type
"archive"
path (string)
The path of the archive
url (string)
The URL of a remote archive that will be downloaded. This
overrides path if both are specified.
sha256 (string)
The sha256 checksum of the file, verified after
download
strip-components (integer)
The number of initial pathname components to strip during
extraction. Defaults to 1.
Git sources
type
"git"
path (string)
The path to a local checkout of the git repository. Due
to how git-clone works, this will be much faster than specifying a URL of
file:///...
url (string)
URL of the git repository. This overrides path if both
are specified.
branch (string)
The branch/tag to use from the git repository
commit (string)
The commit to use from the git repository. If branch is
also specified, then it is verified that the branch/tag is at this specific
commit. This is a readable way to document that you're using a particular tag,
but verify that it does not change.
disable-fsckobjects (boolean)
Don't use transfer.fsckObjects=1 to mirror git
repository. This may be needed for some (broken) repositories.
Bzr sources
type
"bzr"
url (string)
URL of the bzr repository
revision (string)
A specific revision to use in the branch
File sources
type
"file"
path (string)
The path of a local file that will be copied into the
source dir
url (string)
The URL of a remote file that will be downloaded and
copied into the source dir. This overrides path if both are specified.
sha256 (string)
The sha256 checksum of the file, verified after download.
This is optional for local files.
dest-filename (string)
Filename to use inside the source dir, default to the
basename of path.
Script sources
This is a way to create a shell (/bin/sh) script from an inline
set of commands.
type
"script"
commands (array of strings)
An array of shell commands that will be put in a
shellscript file
dest-filename (string)
Filename to use inside the source dir, default to the
basename of path.
Shell sources
This is a way to create/modify the sources by running shell
commands.
type
"shell"
commands (array of strings)
An array of shell commands that will be run during source
extraction
Patch sources
type
"patch"
path (string)
The path of a patch file that will be applied in the
source dir
strip-components (integer)
The value of the -p argument to patch, defaults to
1.
use-git (boolean)
Whether to use "git apply" rather than
"patch" to apply the patch, required when the patch file contains
binary diffs.
options (array of strings)
Extra options to pass to the patch command.
