🛠️ Handler

Handler is a command line tool to manage AppImages on Linux. It automates installation, extracts embedded icons, and creates desktop entries for your application launcher.

📦 Features

• Interactive Menus: Navigate installation and uninstallation through a terminal interface.
• Smart Dependencies: Checks your operating system and provides commands to install missing FUSE 2 libraries.
• Icon Extraction: Scans AppImage internal directories and embedded desktop files to extract the correct application icon.
• Desktop Integration: Generates standard desktop entries and updates your local application database automatically.

⚙️ Prerequisites

You need FUSE 2 installed on your system to run most AppImages. The handler script detects missing dependencies and provides the correct installation command for other distributions (Arch, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE).

🚀 Installation

Save the handler.sh script to your computer. Make the file executable and move it to your local user binaries directory so you can access it from your shell environment.

chmod +x handler.sh
mv handler.sh ~/.local/bin/handler

🎯 Usage

Navigate to the directory containing your downloaded AppImage files before running the interactive scanner.

cd ~/Downloads
ls -la
handler

You can use command line flags to bypass the menus:

• Install a specific file: handler -i /path/to/application.AppImage
• Open the uninstall menu: handler -u
• Show the help screen: handler -h
• Check the version: handler -v

🗺️ Roadmap

The project focuses on packaging the tool for direct installation across all major Linux distributions.

• Package the script for the Arch User Repository for CachyOS and Arch Linux users.
• Build native Debian packages for Ubuntu and Pop!_OS systems.
• Build native RPM packages for Fedora and openSUSE systems.
• Set up automated continuous integration pipelines for version distribution.

⚠️ Limitations

• Updates: Handler does not update applications automatically. You must uninstall the old version and install the new file manually.
• Permissions: The tool does not sandbox applications. Use a program like Firejail if you need strict permission control.