I have a Python-package that calls Inkscape as part of a conversion process. I have it installed, but through Flatpak. This means that calling inkscape does not work in the terminal, but rather flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape. I need the package to be able to call it as inkscape.

What is the best way to go about this?

    • @cyberwolfieOP
      10•5 months ago

      Yeah, I tried this, and it works from my session, but I still got the same error from trying to run the program. I figured it was because it is called outside the bash session so the run commands have not been run, but is that perhaps not true?

      • @ForynGilnith@lemmy.worldEnglish
        40•5 months ago

        If that’s the case, it’s a bit of an ugly hack but you could make a wrapper script placed in /usr/local/bin/inkscape like this:

        #!/bin/bash

flatpack run org.inkscape.Inkscape ${*}

        (the ${*} will pass along all the arguments that the wrapper script was called with)

        • @cyberwolfieOP
          13•5 months ago

          Thanks! I was trying to implement this, and was trying to figure out how to pass all the arguments! This worked for me! I got some other errors, but they don’t seem related to this, so now to find out what they are all about 😅

        • Josh
          1•5 months ago

          Saving this for later, that’s genius.

  • Ananace
    36•5 months ago

    Flatpak already creates executable wrappers for all applications as part of regular installs, though they’re by default named as the full package name.

    For when inkscape has been installed into the system-wide Flatpak installation, you could simply symlink it like; ln -s /var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/org.inkscape.Inkscape /usr/local/bin/inkscape

    For the user-local installation, the exported runnable is in ~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/bin instead.

    • @rotopenguin@infosec.pubEnglish
      16•5 months ago

      I handle it more like ln -s /var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/org.inkscape.Inkscape ~/.local/bin/inkscape

      .local/bin is a directory that you may have to make, but your shell’s startup scripts should automatically add it to the PATH after that.

      • Ananace
        1•5 months ago

        I personally use ~/.bin for my own symlinks, though I also use the user-specific installation instead of the system-wide one.
        I wouldn’t guarantee that any automation handles ~/.local/bin or ~/.bin either, that would depend entirely on the distribution. In my case I’ve added both to PATH manually.

  • @OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org
    16•5 months ago

    Put a shell script in your PATH named inkscape with the following content:

    #!/bin/sh

flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape

    Note that you can use a local folder in your home directory to house small executables and scripts like this, so you don’t have to touch your system config. I generally recommend using something like ~/.local/bin and add it to your PATH via your Shell’s RC file.

    • @cyberwolfieOP
      4•5 months ago

      How does this deal with any flags passed?

      • @OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org
        12•5 months ago

        If you need to pass flags you can use

        flatpak run org.inkscape.Inkscape "$@"

        To forward all of the arguments to the script. Note that this might be a bashism, so you might need to change your hash bang to /bin/bash as well. Double check though.

        (An easy way to check if something is working as you assume is just prepend the line with echo.)

        • @gnuhaut
          4•5 months ago

          This is not a bashism. It’ll work fine with any sh.

  • @smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de
    6•5 months ago

    You can do an alias for the shell you use or make a symlink to /usr/local/bin/ for the entire system.

    There are importany reasons why this is not the default, but you can do it as long as you are away you have done it. Like when programs installed via package manager and flatpak starts conflicting, you’ll know why.

  • Tzeentch
    6•5 months ago

    Two utilities that may be handy for you here:

    Pakrat: Automates and simplifies the process of creating alliases for flatpaks, good if you just need to make a few programs be simplified

    Fuzzpak: Lets you do fuzzy searches for flatpaks(as in you just write fuzzpak inkscape and it auto looks for something with inkscape in the flatpak folder and launches it), good for when you want to simplify launching flatpaks in general without doing the process of configuring stuff manually

    • @GentooIsBased
      2•5 months ago

      I actually didn’t know about the symbolic link meathod. Thanks!

  • adONis
    4•5 months ago

    Why don’t you check for both and use the one that’s available, otherwise print an error. Additionally you could read an env INKSCAPE_BIN and also include that in your checks.

    So one could for example do INKSCAPE_BIN='distrobox enter arch -- inkscape' python main.py

    • @cyberwolfieOP
      2•5 months ago

      It is not my package, but I could of course go ahead and change the source code directly to handle this. But I’d prefer a solution that would persist through updates.

    • @OsrsNeedsF2P
      14•5 months ago

      Yup, pack it up folks. We spent years working to solve containerized applications with a granular permission system, but we can’t figure out how to make an executable run a command. It was a good run, but it’s over now.