# pkgs.appimageTools {#sec-pkgs-appimageTools}

`pkgs.appimageTools` is a set of functions for extracting and wrapping [AppImage](https://appimage.org/) files.
They are meant to be used if traditional packaging from source is infeasible, or if it would take too long.
To quickly run an AppImage file, `pkgs.appimage-run` can be used as well.

::: {.warning}
The `appimageTools` API is unstable and may be subject to backwards-incompatible changes in the future.
:::

## Wrapping {#ssec-pkgs-appimageTools-wrapping}

Use `wrapType2` to wrap any AppImage.
This will create a FHS environment with many packages [expected to exist](https://github.com/AppImage/pkg2appimage/blob/master/excludelist) for the AppImage to work.
`wrapType2` expects an argument with the `src` attribute, and either a `name` attribute or `pname` and `version` attributes.

It will eventually call into [`buildFHSEnv`](#sec-fhs-environments), and any extra attributes in the argument to `wrapType2` will be passed through to it.
This means that you can pass the `extraInstallCommands` attribute, for example, and it will have the same effect as described in [`buildFHSEnv`](#sec-fhs-environments).

::: {.note}
In the past, `appimageTools` provided both `wrapType1` and `wrapType2`, to be used depending on the type of AppImage that was being wrapped.
However, [those were unified early 2020](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/81833), meaning that both `wrapType1` and `wrapType2` have the same behaviour now.
:::

:::{.example #ex-wrapping-appimage-from-github}

# Wrapping an AppImage from GitHub

```nix
{ appimageTools, fetchurl }:
let
  pname = "nuclear";
  version = "0.6.30";

  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://github.com/nukeop/nuclear/releases/download/v${version}/nuclear-v${version}.AppImage";
    hash = "sha256-he1uGC1M/nFcKpMM9JKY4oeexJcnzV0ZRxhTjtJz6xw=";
  };
in
appimageTools.wrapType2 { inherit pname version src; }
```

:::

The argument passed to `wrapType2` can also contain an `extraPkgs` attribute, which allows you to include additional packages inside the FHS environment your AppImage is going to run in.
`extraPkgs` must be a function that returns a list of packages.
There are a few ways to learn which dependencies an application needs:

  - Looking through the extracted AppImage files, reading its scripts and running `patchelf` and `ldd` on its executables.
    This can also be done in `appimage-run`, by setting `APPIMAGE_DEBUG_EXEC=bash`.
  - Running `strace -vfefile` on the wrapped executable, looking for libraries that can't be found.

:::{.example #ex-wrapping-appimage-with-extrapkgs}

# Wrapping an AppImage with extra packages

```nix
{ appimageTools, fetchurl }:
let
  pname = "irccloud";
  version = "0.16.0";

  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://github.com/irccloud/irccloud-desktop/releases/download/v${version}/IRCCloud-${version}-linux-x86_64.AppImage";
    hash = "sha256-/hMPvYdnVB1XjKgU2v47HnVvW4+uC3rhRjbucqin4iI=";
  };
in
appimageTools.wrapType2 {
  inherit pname version src;
  extraPkgs = pkgs: [ pkgs.at-spi2-core ];
}
```

:::

## Extracting {#ssec-pkgs-appimageTools-extracting}

Use `extract` if you need to extract the contents of an AppImage.
This is usually used in Nixpkgs to install extra files in addition to [wrapping](#ssec-pkgs-appimageTools-wrapping) the AppImage.