Skip to content

Flatpak Integration in Packages

Problem to solve

Flatpak, like SNAP, is a rather new way for GNU/Linux developers to distribute packaged binary releases of their applications across Unix-like systems without having to rely on the users' libraries. With Flatpak it is generally easier for developers to track down errors and to distribute new versions.

As a software developer for GNU/Linux, I'd like to be able to deploy my Flatpak apps directly using GitLab. Currently, we use Artefacts to provide exported bundles and a custom script to export the software to our Flatpak repository.

I think this might be related to the already existent Packages feature. Flatpak allows you to deploy multiple versions of your software to a single repository, so "Packages" in my opinion is the best place to put a feature like this.

Given that the GNU/Linux software community using Flatpak mostly consists of Free Software project, I'd love to see this feature available in the Free Software CE version of GitLab. However, proprietary projects might find this feature useful as well.

Intended users

Further details

The GNOME project currently uses a rather complicated CI configuration to automatically deploy their apps to their nightly repository.

Moreover, the Flatpak developer help has a section on Hosting a repository.

Proposal

This problem could be solved by adding a "Flatpak Repository" feature in the "Packages" category.

Permissions and Security

Access level requirement should be somehow linked to creating releases. However, there should always be a (simple) way for the CI to deploy Nightlies.