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  "canonicalUrl": "https://justingarrison.com/blog/2023-03-19-launch-flatpak-app",
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  "description": "How to make it easier to launch command line utilities and GUI applications installed with flatpak",
  "path": "/blog/2023-03-19-launch-flatpak-app",
  "publishedAt": "2023-03-20T04:53:18.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:p7uix7mresfq4nfzxp3klgfa/site.standard.publication/3mmdn7mg2qm2d",
  "textContent": "Flatpak might be a great portable, secure packaging format, but it's not the most user friendly tool.\nThere are plenty of downsides to flatpak apps, but it is increasingly the most ubiquitous Linux packaging format.\n\nOne thing that is difficult with flatpack is launching applications from the terminal.\nCurrently the only official way to launch an app is with:\n\nApplication fully qualified names are usually some form of a reverse domain name where the application is hosted or the developer who created it.\nExamples include:\n\n com.spotify.Client\n org.kde.krita\n* com.visualstudio.code\n\nAnd they're never memorable.\n\nThere is a feature request to make apps easier to launch from a terminal.\nUnfortunately, flatpak ideals often get in the way of user friendliness.\n\nTo make launching the latest version of apps easier you can add /var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin to your PATH but then you still need to remember the full application name.\nYou can alias spotify='com.spotify.Client' but if the Spotify client isn't installed your command will give an error.\n\nAn easier way to create a shortcut is to symlink the desired command name to the flatpak export.\nCreate the symlink in a folder already in your PATH to avoid getting tab completions with a bunch of org and com commands.\n\nThe symlink can always exist, but if the target file does not exist your shell should be smart enough to not execute or tab complete it.",
  "title": "Launch Flatpak apps easily from your terminal"
}