AppManager¶

ID: app-manager
Link: Repository
Version requirement: >= 3.6
Platforms: 🐧 Linux
Operations: outdated · install · upgrade_all · remove
purl types: pkg:app-manager/
CLI name: app-manager
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: app-manager
Source: app_manager.toml

AppManager is a GTK application installing the AppImage files dropped on it and keeping them updated, with a command line for the same jobs.

Parsing notes, verified against AppManager 3.8.0 on Ubuntu 26.04 aarch64:

Every declared verb completes headless. --version, --update-check and --update-all are answered before the application starts, and install, update and uninstall completed with no display attached.
update and uninstall find an app by its installed path, by the path it was installed from, or by the checksum of a file at that path, and never by name (locate_record() in src/application.vala): uninstall AppManager answers “No installation matches AppManager” with exit code 3. The per-app operations are therefore keyed on the path the app was installed from, which the registry keeps after install moved the file away, so one id round-trips from install to remove.
--update-check names each app instead, and nothing lists the installed apps: the registry at ~/.local/share/app-manager/installations.json is read by the application alone. That leaves outdated keyed on names the other operations do not accept, which the operation notes below tell the user. It also leaves update unmapped: mpm routes a single-package upgrade through the manager’s inventory.
install and uninstall print “gtk4-update-icon-cache: Cache file created successfully.” on stderr while exiting 0.
--is-installed is not used: pointed at an installed file, it opened the window and never answered.

What `mpm` adds to `app-manager`¶

mpm reaches across every manager at once, not app-manager alone: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover app-manager alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `app-manager` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know app-manager: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `app-manager`	With `mpm`
List outdated packages	`app-manager --update-check`	`mpm --app-manager outdated`
Install a package	`app-manager install <package_id>`	`mpm install pkg:app-manager/<package_id>`
Upgrade everything	`app-manager --update-all`	`mpm --app-manager upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`app-manager uninstall <package_id>`	`mpm remove pkg:app-manager/<package_id>`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	❌	No command lists the installed apps: only the application reads its registry.
`outdated`	✅	Reports each app by name, a key the other per-app operations do not accept.
`orphans`
`search`	❌	No catalog: AppManager installs AppImage files the user downloaded.
`install`	✅	Takes the path of a downloaded AppImage file, and moves that file into `~/Applications`.
`upgrade`	❌	No single-app upgrade: routing one needs an inventory, which nothing lists.
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅	Takes the path the app was installed from, or its installed path, never its name.
`sync`
`cleanup`
`doctor`

Configuration¶

Ignore app-manager on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-app-manager option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
app-manager = false
```

Raise the timeout of all app-manager calls:

[mpm.overrides.app-manager]
timeout = 900

Run mpm config-template app-manager to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.app-manager]
cli_names = [
    "app-manager",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=3.6.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "^AppManager (?P<version>\\S+)",
]

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around app-manager, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --app-manager dump app-manager.toml, then mpm restore app-manager.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --app-manager sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

mpm runs this manager as the current user and never prepends sudo by default. Flip the policy for its privileged operations with --sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

None of its operations is privileged.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of AppManager’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: GitHub release assets
Retraction: None: withdrawing a build is the upstream author deleting their own release or tag. Nothing sits between them and the user
Publish date: ✅ server-set published_at on each release (REST API)

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the bundled definition. If you know AppManager well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ app-manager --update-check
AppManager: 3.7.3 -> v3.8.0

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ app-manager --version
AppManager 3.8.0

and extracted with:

r"^AppManager (?P<version>\S+)"

Changelog¶

8.1.0.dev0 (unreleased)
- Add the AppManager AppImage manager with outdated, install, remove and full upgrade support. install and remove take the AppImage’s file path, and nothing lists the installed apps.