flatpak-builder is a tool for building flatpaks from sources.

It reads a JSON or YAML based manifest to automatically download, build, and install projects which eventually get exported into a flatpak.

For information on the manifest format see man flatpak-manifest. A JSON Schema for this format is available here.

To use the JSON schema, in an editor with support for schemas, you can include this line in your manifest:

  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flatpak/flatpak-builder/main/data/flatpak-manifest.schema.json"

For information on the command-line tool see man flatpak-builder or the online documentation.

Installation

Flatpak-builder uses the Meson build system. To build just do:

 meson setup _build
 meson install -C _build

Configure arguments are documented in meson_options.txt.

Runtime dependencies

The flatpak-builder tool requires flatpak being available on the host to function. Depending on the manifest used it also requires some commands be available on the host.

Very commonly used:

• sh
• patch
• tar
• cp
• git
• 7z
• unzip

Rarely used:

• rpm2cpio & cpio
• svn
• bzr