Nightly Subsurface AppImage for most Linux distributions

[probono]

2015-10-18 14:14 GMT+02:00 Lubomir I. Ivanov <neolit123 at gmail.com>:
>
> let's say i have developed a rather big peace of CAD software (e.g.
> 4GB) which is a small 10MB executable and next to it are many large
> files (e.g. 200MB) which have a horrible AppImage compression ratio as
> they are already compressed. the main executable loads these files as
> libraries (let's say 3D meshes, textures, or schematics). i often make
> updates to some of the 200MB files and wish to implement a
> download-updates mechanic, which only touches some large library files
> and possible the main executable.
>
> if an installation process to a RW location is not implemented in
> AppImage i need to either re-package the whole bundle (4GB) for each
> iteration or maintain some sort of a separation scheme for the main
> executable and the libraries. again, on Windows this won't be a
> problem because the download-updates mechanic will just work due the
> the RW access of the installation folder.
>
> how would you approach this silly big CAD software example in a
> portable OS manner?

Sorry for having this found only now, but the PortableLinuxGames
project has an interesting solution for this problem:
https://github.com/RazZziel/PortableLinuxGames/wiki/Apps-that-require-writing-inside-the-AppImage

(Some) "applications will insist on writing inside the application
directory, which is impossible inside an AppImage, because they're
just a read-only ISO image. (...) We can use a unionfs to let the
application write as much as it likes inside the data directory, and
redirect all the writes to another directory using a COW
(Copy-on-Write) strategy."

By bundling the unionfs-fuse binary inside the AppImage this just
requires FUSE on the host system.