FreeCAD 0.19 AppImage

[triplus]

I will start this thread a bit early, as on the Conda packaging side @looo already did most of the work and i have some items left on the todo list, like documentation support and taking a look at:

https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-AppImage/issues

It would be good if people can start reporting things like on what Linux distribution FreeCAD 0.19 AppImage currently doesn't work (or it does work).

Note that the current plan is to include the Assembly 3 module in the FreeCAD 0.19 stable AppImage. Best to start testing, Assembly 3 module is already included in the FreeCAD 0.19 daily AppImage.

[OficineRobotica]

Not sure if this is the right place to post but the first issue is that the 0.19 appimage is missing completely from here https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases. This also makes the appimageUpdate tool to fail. It would be nice to be able to update from freecad itself.
As I'm on kde neon i'm forced to use the appimage and btw I'm loving the hassle free install.
Cheers

[Kunda1]

Not sure if this is the right place to post but the first issue is that the 0.19 appimage is missing completely from here https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases.

Confirmed.

[triplus]

Should be back now.

This happens from time to time, due to things like network issues somewhere in between Travis and GitHub. In the past we tried to tackle this, by using some fancy detection logic in travis.yml, but that also didn't work reliable and other potential issues were introduced as a result.

Anyway, such issues usually sort themselves out in less then 24h, on the next Travis build job (scheduled daily). Or somebody, having the needed permission, can click on the Restart build button on Travis, for the last build job:

https://travis-ci.org/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-AppImage

[Kunda1]

Should be back now.

Indeed, thanks @triplus

[triplus]

I closed some issue reports:

Thanks to @looo SolveSpace and Assembly 3 are now included by default. Based on future development and feedback this decision can get revised, if needed. FreeCAD 0.19 includes pycollada, hence that should work by default.

There was a feature request, for being able to run other applications, from AppImage. That should be possible now, some examples:

Code: Select all

./FreeCAD.AppImage
./FreeCAD.AppImage freecadcmd
./FreeCAD.AppImage python --version
./FreeCAD.AppImage python
./FreeCAD.AppImage python ./test.py
./FreeCAD.AppImage ccx -version
./FreeCAD.AppImage ccx -i test

[looo]

great! Now we can bundle everything in the appimage

Btw. we shoud talk about how to handle the releases. I would like to switch from the multiple directory workflow to a multiple branches workflow. So once 0.19 is released, we create a 0.19 branch and edit the scripts to use 0.19 (release) builds. But I am not sure if travis already builds (and uploads) other branches than master.

[triplus]

great! Now we can bundle everything in the appimage

Don't we already?

Btw. we shoud talk about how to handle the releases. I would like to switch from the multiple directory workflow to a multiple branches workflow. So once 0.19 is released, we create a 0.19 branch and edit the scripts to use 0.19 (release) builds. But I am not sure if travis already builds (and uploads) other branches than master.

I personally had enough of Travis and GitHub for a while. If somebody else wants to work on it i have no problems with that. As you likely won't delete Conda channels for FreeCAD 0.18 (Linux/macOS)? In that case i would just move the existing "stable folders" to an "archive folder". In case we need them again in the future. At some point, after FreeCAD 0.19 gets released and things will settle down, we might consider turning off the daily builds for stable AppImage (and for stable DMG). For the AppImage updaters not to show there are updates available on a daily basis. You can always trigger the rebuild manually, when needed, or with an commit.

Anyway today i added a DEBUG environment variable logic to FreeCAD 0.19 AppImage:

Code: Select all

export DEBUG=1
./FreeCAD.AppImage

This should list Conda packages on AppImage start. Before such list always got displayed and it looked a bit too verbose to me.

[triplus]

I took the final look, on how can we address the FreeCAD 0.18/0.19 AppImage documentation support. If anybody wants to read technical details, best to look here. The problem, cached freecad.qhc file, can't currently be fully resolved on our side. Qt people were notified and possible future solutions were proposed. As far as the FreeCAD 0.18 and 0.19 AppImage is concerned, the strategy that was selected is to embed the documentation in the AppImage and provide an opt-in option to delete the cached .qhc file on AppImage start. Please download the latest FreeCAD 0.18/0.19 AppImages and test:

Code: Select all

export DOC=1
./FreeCAD.AppImage

Start FreeCAD at least twice in such way. Pressing on F1 or when using What's This command should result in working Help. If on some Linux distributions such procedure won't work, there is a chance we will need to add an additional path, for where to look for a cached freecad.qhc file.

P.S. As this is a rather isolated removal of a file and based on the feedback, a decision can be made in the future, to enable such logic by default.

[triplus]

As far as the stylesheet support is concerned, one can always drop a stylesheet in .FreeCAD/Gui/Stylesheets folder and for the drop down stylesheet selector in the Preferences to pick it up. As for a set of stylesheets provided by default (system location), there is now a pending PR. Once merged, a relative path to the stylesheet will get used instead of an absolute path.

Enabling any stylesheet in Preferences, regardless of the location, should hence persist cross AppImage restarts.